I took a survey in my classes last week that indicated a surprising level of support for the recently passed health care legislation. It was published in the local newspaper. You can find the article posted on the Visalia Times-Delta's website.
While the poll of 191 community college students is not a large or diverse enough sampling to be considered a scientific survey, the results are quite interesting considering they come from Tulare County, one of the most conservative-voting counties in California. By lack of diversity, I refer particularly to the respondents' ages. Most are in their late teens or early twenties. Ethnically, they are plenty diverse. Overall, 62% approved of the legislation, 33% disapproved and 5% indicated no opinion.
The figures for the specific facets of the Health Care Act were extremely high for the benefits. These include such things as the ban on refusing insurance to people for pre-existing conditions or forbidding cancelling people who get sick. Yet even the costs were popular. 62% were in favor of the higher taxes on higher income people and 61% supported the mandate to buy and subsidies for those making less than $88,000 to help them do so.
Coupled with the recent Gallup poll that found 49% thought the Act was a good idea while only 40% a bad one, it is possible the opposition has been overstated. It certainly hasn't been overstated in vehemence, but perhaps it has in numbers. After all, some of the opposition came from people on the left, who wanted to see a public option. It is likely most of those folks are moving into the pro-reform camp now, rather than supporting a return to the status quo and getting nothing at all.
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