WASHINGTON — As Democratic congressional leaders and White House officials work to shape health care bills that will go to the House and Senate floors, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that support for a government-run health plan to compete with private insurers has rebounded from its summertime lows and now wins clear majority support from the public.
Americans remain sharply divided about both the overall health care package and President Barack Obama’s leadership on the issue, reflecting the intense partisan battle that has raged for months over the administration’s top legislative priority.
But majorities now back two key and controversial provisions: both the so-called public option and a new mandate requiring all Americans to carry health insurance.
The poll found that 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option, while 40 percent are opposed. Support has risen since mid-August, when a bare majority, 52 percent, said they favored it. In a June Post-ABC poll, support had been at 62 percent.
If run by the states and available only to those who lack affordable private options, support for a public plan jumps to 76 percent. Under those circumstances, even a majority of Republicans, 56 percent, would be supportive, about double their level of support without such a limitation.
Fifty-six percent of all Americans favor a provision mandating all Americans to buy insurance, either through their employers or on their own or through eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid.
That number rises to 71 percent should the government provide subsidies for many lower-income Americans to help them purchase insurance. With those qualifiers, a majority of Republicans say they backed the mandate.
Overall, 45 percent of Americans favor the broad outlines of the proposals now moving in Congress, while 48 percent are opposed, about the same division as in August at the height of the angry town hall meetings over health care. Seven in 10 Democrats back the plan while almost nine in 10 Republicans oppose it. Independents divide 52 percent against, 42 percent in favor of the set of reforms.
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