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NPR Steps in to Rescue Congressional Democrats in Health Insurance Debate

By Mark I Posted in Congress — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Bluey had the details of a USA Today poll that showed the public falling in line with the president’s reasons for vetoing the Democrats’ bloated expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. USA Today reported that 52% of Americans in their poll agreed with the president that government funding for poor children’s health insurance should go to poor children first, not to middle class adults. That’s bad news for the Democrats and their planned override of the president’s veto tomorrow.

Not to worry, though, the Democratic Party can always count on their friends in the mainstream press to provide them with cover for their votes and positions. This debate is no exception. This morning, National Public Radio broadcast the results of its own poll on Americans’ attitude toward the SCHIP expansion, and lo and behold! the Democrats’ position was supported in the majority.

Read on…

The poll, conducted jointly by three noted liberal organizations: NPR; The Kaiser Family Foundation; and the Harvard School of Public Health; consisted of telephone surveys of 1,527 adults between October 8th and 13th. The sample breaks down as 34% Democrat, 23% Republican and 35% independent. Respondents reported that they leaned 51% Democrat, 33% Republican and 10% independent. 52% were women, 48% men. 23% self-identified as liberal, 40% moderate, and 32% conservative.

Here are some key results:

4. Congress is proposing to spend an additional $35 billion over the next 5 years in order to maintain coverage for those already in the program and expand coverage to an additional 3.8 million uninsured children. The expansion would be financed by an increase in cigarette taxes. In general, would you say you support or oppose the increased funding for this program?

70 Support
26 Oppose
3 Don’t know

5. (Supporters say the expansion would prevent children who are already covered from losing their coverage and provide health insurance for millions of low-income children who are currently uninsured. They also say the program has been shown to be effective over the past ten years). (Opponents say the expansion would encourage some families who have private health insurance to drop it in favor of government funded coverage. They also say the expansion will wind up covering some children in middle-class families). After hearing these arguments, would you say you support or oppose the increased funding for this program?

65 Support
28 Oppose
6 Don’t know

6. Which worries you more: (that the law will not go far enough and some children who need health insurance won’t get it), or (that the law will go too far and end up providing health insurance to some children whose families can afford it)
Based on one half of total respondents (N = 762)

55 The law will not go far enough
33 The law will go too far
3 (Vol) Both equally
3 (Vol) Neither
6 Don’t know

7. Which worries you more: (that the law will not go far enough and some children who need health insurance won’t get it), or (that the law will go too far and end up encouraging those who already have private insurance to drop it in favor of government-funded coverage)?
Based on one half of total respondents (N = 765)

54 The law will not go far enough
37 The law will go too far
2 (Vol) Both equally
1 (Vol) Neither
5 Don’t know

8. Do you think the expansion of the SCHIP (ess-chip) program to cover more uninsured children is a step toward a system where the government runs all the country's health care, or don't you think so?

40 Yes, think so
52 No, do not think so
8 Don’t know

NPR’s results almost directly contradict the USA Today poll. This fact was not mentioned in the glowing NPR report broadcast this morning on Morning Edition. In fact, if all one ever listened to was Morning Edition, one would be completely unaware that there was any other polling data published anywhere on this question.

So now the Democrats can stand on the floor of the House tomorrow and truthfully say that a majority of the public supports their program, as can the Republicans, which reveals the true purpose of this poll. USA Today may have a political bias in its reporting, but at least it didn’t team up with conservative groups to conduct its poll on SCHIP. NPR saw fit to partner with Kaiser and Harvard despite the fairly well known biases of those two organizations. And they were not disappointed.

It seems that the goal here was to create a poll with the results that were achieved and it was a spectacular success. To be clear, NPR’s poll was not done to counter USA Today’s, but it was done to give a boost to the Democrats arguing in favor of a veto override, as well as pressure Republicans into supporting the override attempt. Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is often credited with saying that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. It is hard to imagine to which category he would attribute the results of this poll.