What if no agreement can be reached?

In recent news, its has been reported that there is a possibility that Congress can pass Obama's healthcare plan without the GOP votes. However, what would this mean for the U.S. if a blatant disregard for another group is met. Is it still a democracy? Apparently some Americans are seemingly catching wind of this notion. Previously a poll was made public that said that 24% of Americans say that Democrats should pass the healthcare plan without the GOP. However, according to a most recent Rasmussen report 58% believe that the Democrats should change the bill in order to win a "reasonable amount of Republican voters." In addittion, the poll also states that 64% of those polled who are not affiliated with a political party think that the bill should be changed.

Its interesting that the U.S. government would even consider the possibility of passing reform without the approval required. Is it right for one party to trump another just because of their majority control? Also, its is interesting to note that despite the possibility of overturning such a large surplus of voters opinions, most Americans think that reform should be made to the bill in order to gain an appropriate amount of approval.


http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/august_2009/24_say_democrats_should_pass_health_care_reform_without_gop_votes

Should the government be responsible for healthcare?

In a recent poll conducted by world opinion.org, people were asked whether or not they thought that it was the governments duty to ensure basic food, eductaion and healthcare to its citizens. Due to our recent dilemma with healthcare, I thought that it was interesting that although 74% in the US said yes, the government should be responsible, 25% responded no which was by far the largest percentage of citizens saying no than any other country.

Most all other countries had a 84-98% of the population saying yes (despite India, which had some erros in its poll due to gaps) that these were areas that the government needed to be responsible for. Some, not all had universal healthcare plans.

This poll shows the different outlook that the U.S. has on the governments role in our everyday lives possibly because some may believe that if the government was able to control these three topics of interest, it may overstep the U.S. Constitution which is something that many other countries are not familiar with in their own realm of laws. The U.S. has a chunk of its population that it needs to convince before the healthcare system is handed over to its government.


http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/btjusticehuman_rightsra/565.php?lb=bthr&pnt=565&nid=&id=

Citizen Satisfaction in other Countries with Universal Health Care

In a recent Gallup poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/122393/OECD-Countries-Universal-Healthcare-Gets-High-Marks.aspx, citizens who were part of a country with universal health care, had more overall satisfaction with their health care policies than those who had privately run health care.

Out of those who has universal health care, 73% had confidence in their national health care and or medical system. In addition, 79% of those polled were satisfied with the quality and availability of the health care in their area. However, out of those who had no universal health care, only 60% of those polled had confidence in their national health care/medical system and only 60% of those polled were satisfied with the quality and availability of health care in their area.

Although universal health care may seem favorable to most in regards to this poll, it may be important to take into account the death rates in both countries and the presence of various diseases, disorders, and injuries. Some in one country may be satisfied with their health care because they are not exposed to the same likelihood of illnesses that may be frequent in another country. In addition, the kind of universal health care that is offered in both countries need to be observed. Are they similar in what kinds of procedures or medications are covered? One countries universal health care may have more options than a universal health care plan that is being proposed in another country that has yet to be initiated into action.

Overall, although the poll may be informative from a general basis, I think it is imperative to look at each poll with some scrutiny in order to fully understand what/who is being polled and varying factors weighing in on those individuals.

Healthcare

Hello, my name is Meg Hogan and I am a senior at ISU. I am majoring in Political Science and Criminal Justice. Although possibly overdone, I chose to do my blog on healthcare because it is impossible to ignore it in the media and unlikely to completely diminish from the headlines for quite some time--regardless of whether or not President Obama's plan passes or not. In addittion, healthcare is not only something floods our current public opinion polls, but is likely to be present in our future public opinion polls and debates in regards to the action taken to reform/revise present day healthcare in the U.S.