They’re tired of Ye Olde Nanny State Of course, when it comes to something individuals are against, they’re happy to ask government to pull out the banhammer
(Daily Caller) Americans want the government to stop acting like their mother.
According to a Reason-Rupe poll, Americans do not want government to ban trans-fats, e-cigarettes, online poker, violent video games or genetic testing kits.
Many Americans are becoming frustrated with the government’s growing involvement in what they believe should be their personal decisions.
Here’s what it looks like, via the link to the poll at Reason
The only loser is making a gun with a 3D printer. But, wait, it gets better, because this is a very big poll, asking lots and lots and lots of questions. The Reason article links to another article about the survey, and we learn
- But 55 percent of Americans say they’d prefer to go back to the health care system that was in place before the Affordable Care Act, while 34 percent prefer the current health care system.
- …the Affordable Care Act’s troubled launch has made 47 percent of Americans less confident in government’s ability to solve problems..
- However, 57 percent of Americans tell Reason-Rupe that the Obama administration is not the most transparent administration in history,
- 52 percent, say they disagree with President Obama’s views about the proper size and power of government
- Fifty-four percent of those surveyed feel government is generally a “burdensome part of society that impedes the ability of people to improve their lives,â€
Sadly, for that last one, we learn that “41 percent feel “government is primarily a source of good and helps people improve their lives.— That’s what Conservatives are up against, people who actually think Government is Good.
73% state that Congress doesn’t understand Obamacare nor how it affects Americans. 57% think Obama’s a total chump who’s doing a poor job on healthcare, 38% approve of his job performance. People think the country is headed in the wrong direction 56%-35%. People hate Obamacare 53%-47%.
People generally find it unacceptable, in many cases up in the 70-78% range, to be charged extra for all the goodies in Obamacare.
Finally, we find that the poll leans Democrat, with a sample of 34-23-34 (D-R-I). This does not bode well for Democrats, when we have samples like this and negative responses for Things Democrats Care About.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Yikes, I’m not expert on polling, but some of the questions seemed leading and clumsily worded. For example, Q13 leads the respondent to oppose higher taxes (who doesn’t, lol?). Q19 begs you to support access to high-quality doctors, implying that the ACA discourages that.
Another libertarian push poll.
http://reason.com/assets/db/13867248465058.pdf
Here’s question 13
13. Would you find it acceptable or unacceptable
for you to [Pay higher taxes] so that health
insurance companies can NOT deny you
coverage or charge you higher premiums
based on pre-existing conditions?
• Acceptable……………………………………..24%
• Unacceptable……………………………………71%
17. Would you find it acceptable or unacceptable
for you to [Have limited access to top quality
doctors and health care providers] so that
health insurance companies can NOT deny
you coverage or charge you higher premiums
based on pre-existing conditions?
• Acceptable…………………………………….22%
• Unacceptable…………………………………..76%
19. Would you find it acceptable or unacceptable
for you to [Wait 2 to 4 weeks longer to
see a specialist or surgeon for a necessary
procedure] so that health insurance
companies can NOT deny you coverage or
charge you higher premiums based on preexisting
conditions?
• Acceptable……………………………………16%
• Unacceptable………………………………….79%
Yet the less biased, general questions gave a 50-50 split, e.g.,
59. Which comes closer to your own opinion?
• “The less government the better ………….48%
• “There are more things government
should be doing ………………………….48%
[…] Pirates Cove has his blogless Sunday Pin Up Post and also points out that Americans are kinda tired of government nannies […]
The ACA limits choices of doctors which by extension means limits on access to high quality doctors. Furthermore, the ACA already has doctors bailing out of the system for a more efficient market driven system. Finally, the ACA is looking to fill the doctor gap by allowing nurses, nurse practitioners, ect to do the work of doctors. While I won’t say they are not qualified, no one can say they have the experience, education and ability of a high quality doctor.
[…] Linked at Pirate’s Cove in the Fine 15 along with a sweet Patriot Pinup – thank you William! While there, check out the great graphic showing that we are “Tired” (may I add angry?) of the Govern… […]
guppy,
Most current insurance plans limit access to doctors and hospitals. You know, in network vs out of network. We have a doctor gap because millions of new patients will be entering the healthcare system. As you point out, many healthcare activities do not require a $300,000/year physician and can be performed by a $100,000/year professional. There is no evidence this changes such as this will reduce the quality of healthcare, which is what the “survey” implied.
Other interesting responses buried in the survey:
32. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Do you favor or oppose raising the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour?
Favor 72%
Oppose 26%
33. Do you think the federal government should set a minimum wage, or not?
Yes, federal government should set a minimum wage 73%
No, federal government should not set a minimum wage 24%
45. Do you favor or oppose legalizing marijuana?
Favor 49%
Oppose 47%
48. Would you favor or oppose eliminating mandatory minimum prison sentences for nonviolent offenders so that judges have the ability to make sentencing decisions on a case-by-case basis?
Favor 71%
Oppose 24%
58. Thinking about your views of cutting federal spending, would you say you agree more with President Obama or the Tea Party?
President Obama 45%
The Tea Party 33%
59. As I read the following pairs of statements, please tell me which comes closer to your own opinion?
The less government the better [or] 48%
There are more things government should be doing 48%
60. As I read the following pairs of statements, please tell me which comes closer to your own opinion?
We need a strong government to handle today’s complex economic problems 49%
People would be better able to handle today’s problems within a free market with less govt involvement 48%
Also the questions worded as “prohibit people from buying”, if reworded to “prohibit corporations from selling” would likely have different responses.
For example:
Trans fats are rarely found in nature and also contribute to human heart disease, with up to 100,000 deaths a year in the US attributed to trans fats in our diets. Should corporations be prohibited from manufacturing and adding these unnatural trans fats to food products to reduce costs?
Patently false.
As has been pointed out to you many times, the CBO estimates that the affect on insured people will be negligible. Secondly, of those millions you think are “entering the health care system,” do you think they never went to a doctor, a clinic, or a hospital before?
The fact of the matter is that people aren’t “entering the health care system” but are entering the “mandated insurance system.”
Except for the fact that more people are signing up for Medicare and Medicare doctors are dropping out of the system because of low pay rates mandated by the government.
You can’t peddle this stuff Jiffy. You think that fewer doctors in the system won’t affect the quality of health care?
I know that you hate facts, but this is getting ridiculous.
guppy,
You are wrong. Health insurance for the poor means more doctor visits, period. You are either ignorant or lying, or both. Our supply of doctors is not constrained by any natural phenomenon. Doctors in the US average over $200,000/yr. There are thousands of qualified applicants prohibited from attending medical school each year because of limits on medical school slots! What sense does that make? We have a legitimate demand for a service and a highly paid position that serves that demand and the market can’t match them up? In addition, there are many thousand of foreign physicians who would be willing to move to the US and accept a bit less than our current docs. It’s almost as if a conspiracy exists to keep the demand and supply for doctors mismatched!
Your solution to our inadequate healthcare system is to keep many of millions poor Americans out of the system because we don’t have enough doctors. Typical Republican solution. Another solution would be to find a way to increase the number of doctors.
Who opposes more taxes? J does. J loves to have taxes raised on everyone else. Esp those who don’t hold to his cult’s beliefs.
And, this and other polls like this shows how inept, decrepit, uneducating, betraying, indoctrinating our educational and political system has become. When 1/3 of America view government dictating how you live your life by dictate\law\punishment as a positive, you know our country is screwed.
“sure, throw people in jail for drinking soda. Only make it other people.”
“sure, throw people in jail for NOT buying a product, as long as its someone else forced to do it.”
“Sure, throw people in jail for daring to question the gov’t.”
“sure, throw reporters in jail for daring to question the status quo set by Socialists gov’ts.”
“Your solution to our inadequate healthcare system is to keep millions of poor Americans out of the system because we don’t have enough doctors. Typical Republican solution.” Really? Well, your solution to what most people were happy with prior to Obamacare is to make millions of more Americans poor from having to pay sky-high insurance rates for coverage they don’t want. Typical Liberal solution. Oh, and the fact that there’s not enough doctors is because of Obamacare.
Or I am expressing an idea that is so logical that you cannot comprehend it without your mind exploding.
The facts are that ObamaCare was supposed to take care of the 24-35 million people without health insurance. (Which is not the same thing as health care.) But as I said, the CBO is estimating that there will still be 31 million without health insurance after the law is fully implemented.
So you may add 24 million people that may see a doctor but you subtract 31 million that won’t.
It really is a simple concept of math which you have previously demonstrated is not your strong suit.
Standards are a natural phenomenon. However, it is a lack of applicants, not a lack of space in schools that has hurt the number of doctors. You also keep saying that there are thousands of doctors willing to come here. That is factually false, but even if it were, there is nothing preventing them from coming here. All they have to do is meet the standards of education and they can start practicing.
Doctors in the US average over $200,000/yr.
Ah yes, liberal jealousy rears its head again. Once you get done lookinbg at the salary, look at the associated costs.
No, the Republican solution(s) which was rejected by liberals would have cured the problems that you admit exist. But liberals don’t want solutions, they want to oppress people.
Instead of making the problem better, liberals made the problem infinitely worse which is typical of people of your ilk.
gumby,
This is what you do. Your goal is to distract from the topic, in this case, a survey.
Did these answers sadden and anger you?
The less government the better ………………….. 48%
There are more things government should be doing…… 48%
We need a strong government to handle today’s complex economic problems ………49%
People would be better able to handle today’s problems within a free market with less govt involvement ………………………………………………………. 48%
Does it make you want to “take your country back”?
Says the guy who talks about other things in a survey on a post entitled: “Poll Shows Americans Tired Of Government Telling Them What To Do.”
giddy typed: 1) “However, it is a lack of applicants, not a lack of space in schools that has hurt the number of doctors.”
According to the AAMC (https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf) in 2012 there were 636,309 applicants to US med schools of which 19,517 matriculated.
Please explain what you meant by your typing. Thanks.
2) giddy typed: 2) “You also keep saying that there are thousands of doctors willing to come here. That is factually false, but even if it were, there is nothing preventing them from coming here. All they have to do is meet the standards of education and they can start practicing.
According to the NYT (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/12/business/economy/long-slog-for-foreign-doctors-to-practice-in-us.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0): “The biggest challenge is that an immigrant physician must win one of the coveted slots in America’s medical residency system, the step that seems to be the tightest bottleneck.
That residency, which typically involves grueling 80-hour workweeks, is required even if a doctor previously did a residency in a country with an advanced medical system, like Britain or Japan. The only exception is for doctors who did their residencies in Canada.
The whole process can consume upward of a decade — for those lucky few who make it through.”
Our system makes it very difficult for foreign trained physicians to practice medicine in the US. In addition, our system trains too few physicians to serve the needs of our citizens. Please explain why you think the solution is to treat fewer patients rather than increase the number of physicians. Thanks.
I have to conclude from the evidence that the US healthcare system intentionally trains fewer doctors than we need. Why do you think we do that?
3) Finally, can you justify your figures for the number of citizens to be covered by the ACA? Thanks.
guttercritter,
Even with the false headline, and the attempt to limit the Pirate’s loyal readers from reading the entire sloppy survey, you expect everyone to just agree with the headline?
Fascinating.
Which comes from the socialist who only reads post titles and then rants and raves. oh but wait.. sometimes he does read the link that Teach attaches to his post. Wait.. Teach attaches the link that he talks about to his post? He allows people to read the article themselves?
Funny that.
I meant exactly what I said, Jiffy. There are a number of slots which are not filled in med schools. Applications is not a measure of people, in case that escaped your notice. There are more people applying as that would be expected as the population grows. We have slots in med schools that are open.
Even the group you cited says the same thing. The issue is not the school spots by the residency spots. The AAMC is advocating the government pay for more residency slots, which is not a surprise. After all, why shouldn’t the government pay for everything?
Great Britain, France and Italy report the greatest number of medical malpractice cases are from foreign doctors. While I am not saying that we should not allow foreign doctors into the country, the fact of the matter is that there are a lot of bad medical schools in other countries.
Are you really willing to say that doctors should be able to just start cutting into bodies without proving a skill set or knowledge?
THAT’S your “idea?”
Because we don’t. There is a retention issue which will grow worse under ObamaCare as many doctors are leaving their fields.
Please learn to read.
You’re welcome
Even with the false headline, and the attempt to limit the Pirate’s loyal readers from reading the entire sloppy survey, you expect everyone to just agree with the headline?
The headline wasn’t sloppy Jiffy. As usual, you make a false charge.
Teach gave a link to the source article. How is that an “attempt to limit the Pirate’s loyal readers from reading the” survey?
As to the headline itself, here you are complaining about the headline after saying that Gumballs was distracting from the content you wished to discuss.
Your alleged points did not attack or disagree with the contents of the post, so you went off in another direction. You did the exact same thing you accused Gumballs of doing.
All you have done is once again prove you are a hypocrite.
guttercritter,
Thank you for trying.
The US healthcare system limits the number of doctors trained. Over 600,000 people apply to med schools each year and the schools accept fewer than 20,000, and you tell us that we train so few because of a lack of applicants.
Just say you are wrong on this tiny issue and move on.
You are in gumby credibility territory with this performance.
I seriously am growing tired of J and incessant need to be combative. whatever the issue. On a post talking about polling people on the state of gov’t affairs, he accuses me of distraction when talking about the poll results.
go away troll. go away.
Jiffypop,
I would thank you as well, but that would mean I was thanking you for your deplorable inability to read and understand the English language.
“Limits” and “capacity” are not the same thing.
I know that you won’t understand the difference, but there is a difference.
The fact of the matter is that the number of applicants does not equate to qualified applicants. Thanks to liberal policies in the schools, we have kids that are graduating high schools that cannot read or write. Here in Florida, the school system recently changed the grading system as the FCAT was showing that only 36% of kids in the 10th grade could read at grade level.
Somehow I don’t think those kids are academically qualified to be doctors, but it you want them operating on you, may I suggest that you start your own medical school.
Oh wait, you won’t do that because that would mean you would actually have to do something instead of demanding others do it.
Also, it is amusing for you to claim that people are being kept out of a job when you support unions who do the same thing.
Once again, your hypocrisy comes out shining bright.
Jeff,
It is fascinating to read things you someone who has no idea as to what he is talking about. Let’s take foreign doctors, I have taught foreign doctors and can assure you that in general terms they do not have the same training as American physicians. The only medical schools that are half again as good as ours might be India. But even then, they are substantially subpar. The foreign trained physicians do not understand some basic aspect of care and when they are in practice, they do not have the same ethics as their American counterparts. Now, you will yell “racist”, but that statement came from an Indian doctor friend.
Then you go on about the poor not having care. I have been in practice for 40 years, several of which were spent in indigent hospitals, teaching. I have never, ever seen an American not receive the medical care that was needed. In fact, the people that I do know who don’t have medical insurance are the couple down the street that own their business and do very well but don’t buy insurance. Then there is the Arab family next door that do not believe in insurance as it has something to do with their religion, then there is the mega millionaire I know that does not need insurance. The list goes on, but all the thousands of poor that I know receive better care than average.
I have followed your statements, mostly you are wrong and making up junk or taking liberal/communistic talking points and presenting these as some kind of truth. Basically you are living in another universe and either intentionally arguing with people on this comment board to satisfy a problematic psychological need or you are a child that has little education and life experience. Either way, you input on issues is irrelevant.
This is a classic problem with polling: subtle differences in wording can give completely different results. I recall a survey years ago where they asked if you were in favor of medical care “provided free by the government”, and later, in the same survey, they asked if you were in favor of medical care “paid for by tax dollars”. I forget the exact numbers but something like 15% answered yes to the first question and no to the second question. Yet objectively these are just two ways of saying exactly the same thing.
guttersnipe,
Nice diversion, but really. Of the over 600,000 applicants, only 19,000 are competent? You’re nuts. Being a doctor is not brain surgery. I guess actually it is brain surgery, but it isn’t rocket science! Would you agree that having too few physicians represents a market failure? Nearly 20% of our economy (it’s only 10-11% in other advanced nations) and the market can’t supply enough docs?
Unions too, nice touch. What, nothing about the Kenyan usurper in the “White” House?
J obviously has no clue about how professionalism works. He would like millions of lesser trained doctors, but fewer highly specialized burger flippers.
david,
I don’t care what you think.
You DON’T think.
gumby,
In the US we have a bottleneck preventing the market from distributing labor where it needs to be. That bottleneck is not because the pay is too low; it is not because of lack of applicants; it is because we have a system that limits the number of doctors. The reason behind this is debatable but the outcome is too few physicians to serve the needs of the citizens and at higher than free-market costs. This contributes to the US above free-market healthcare costs.
The ACA is placing downward pressure on healthcare costs in the US, including doctor’s pay. The concern that current doctors will leave the labor market because their average salary is stagnant (at $200,000/yr) would be a short-term problem in a free market, but the supply of physicians in the US has not been a free market for many decades (we have over 600,000 applicants for med school each year, but the system only allows 19,000 in). (Really conservatives – a socialist has to argue for a free market with you? Oh, sorry, I forgot – free markets only apply to the poor not to the wealthy.)
Except what you are proffing is not free market. The fact that you are suggesting manipulating and forcing a number upon the system means it is not free to act based upon market forces.
And yes, for you Socialists, the free market only applies to yourselves when it makes you money. Otherwise, you demand excessive gov’t intrusion in to the market in order to control purchase power by the other classes.
You keep saying that but it is not true. We have a system that allows qualified doctors. Period. As I said to you the last time, unqualified doctors in other countries have added to patient costs and lessened patient outcomes.
The concern that current doctors will leave the labor market because their average salary is stagnant (at $200,000/yr) would be a short-term problem in a free market, but the supply of physicians in the US has not been a free market for many decades
You mean that the best people don’t compete to get into the best medical schools?
Isn;’t that, by definition, the free market?
You keep arguing about the salaries of a doctor averaging $200,000 but somehow seem to forget that the average malpractice insurance is over $93K a year – almost half of the salary meaning the effective salary is around $100K for a job that requires a high intelligence and 8 years of school.
The ACA is driving good doctors out of the ACA system. They aren’t being driven out of the doctor business. They are being driven out of the areas that would help the poor because the government is limiting the market.
You just can’t accept that the ACA that you thought would be great is actually a bill that is harming people all over the place.
Adults admit their mistakes, Jiffy.