"Most Don't Know What 'Public Option' Means"

by Cliopatria

A new AARP survey shows there is widespread uncertainty about what a"public option" means in the various health care reform bills. Just 37% of the poll's respondents correctly identified the public option from a list of three choices provided to them.
Nate Silver:"If the respondents had simply chosen randomly among the three options provide to them, 33 percent would have selected the correct definition for the public option. Instead, only 37 percent did (although 23 percent did not bother to guess). This is mostly a debate being had among policy elites and the relatively small fraction of the public that is highly knowledgeable and engaged about health care reform; for most others, the details are lost on them."

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Web designing - 9/14/2009

The "public option" would soon become the "only option," and it's not hard to figure out why. The government regulates insurance companies, and could easily tilt the competitive field toward its own program by adding burdensome requirements to private insurers. Drive out the competitors and soon you have the whole game to yourself. Isn't that what critics often accuse Wal-Mart of doing?

William Lever - 9/3/2009

What is it?

It's really "dumb" to say most people don't know what the public option is, then not take the perfect opportunity to explain what the public option is.

Afterall, isn't that the whole point?

Flag problem, do nothing, problem remains--or...flag problem, provide solution, problem fixed.

Jon88 - 8/30/2009

Most people, like the writer you're quoting, keep saying "health care reform" when they mean "health insurance reform," and that's part of what's scaring folks.