{"id":283707,"date":"2010-02-05T14:40:26","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T19:40:26","guid":{"rendered":"tag:business.theatlantic.com,2010:\/\/3.35479"},"modified":"2010-02-05T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2010-02-05T19:40:11","slug":"how-support-for-health-care-spoiled-so-badly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/283707","title":{"rendered":"How Support for Health Care Spoiled So Badly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why did popular support for health care reform plunge?<\/p>\n<p>Well, it didn&#8217;t. If you look at the Pollster moving average of health care support and opposition, the story isn&#8217;t falling approval, but rising dissent.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see below support for health care reform slips a bit, but it<br \/>\nmostly hovers around the mid-40s. The real action here is the red line:<br \/>\nOpposition spiked last summer and has steadily inched up to 50<br \/>\npercent.<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www.pollster.com\/flashcharts\/scripts\/javascript\/loess.js\"><\/script><object height=\"346\" width=\"450\"><param name=\"chart\" value=\"http:\/\/www.pollster.com\/flashcharts\/flash\/swfs\/chart.swf?xml=http:\/\/www.pollster.com\/flashcharts\/content\/xml\/HealthCare.xml&amp;choices=Oppose,Favor&amp;phone=&amp;ivr=&amp;internet=&amp;mail=&amp;smoothing=&amp;from_date=&amp;to_date=&amp;min_pct=&amp;max_pct=&amp;grid=&amp;points=&amp;trends=&amp;lines=&amp;colors=Favor-000000,Oppose-BF0014,Undecided-A69A37,No Opinion-68228B&amp;e=1\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"false\" \/><param name=\"allowScriptAccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.pollster.com\/flashcharts\/flash\/swfs\/chart.swf?xml=http:\/\/www.pollster.com\/flashcharts\/content\/xml\/HealthCare.xml&amp;choices=Oppose,Favor&amp;phone=&amp;ivr=&amp;internet=&amp;mail=&amp;smoothing=&amp;from_date=&amp;to_date=&amp;min_pct=&amp;max_pct=&amp;grid=&amp;points=&amp;trends=&amp;lines=&amp;colors=Favor-000000,Oppose-BF0014,Undecided-A69A37,No%20Opinion-68228B&amp;e=1\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowfullscreen=\"false\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" height=\"346\" width=\"450\"><\/object><\/p>\n<p>But this still requires some explanation. To be sure, Medicare cuts and<br \/>\ntax increases to offset the subsidies were never going to be an easy<br \/>\nsell, but judged individually, many elements of the health care plan<br \/>\nhave polled well. Clive Crook offers his <a href=\"http:\/\/clivecrook.theatlantic.com\/archives\/2010\/02\/why_is_health_care_reform_unpo.php\">thoughts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I<br \/>\nthink opposition is driven less by specific concerns of this sort and<br \/>\nmore by general disgust and exhaustion. As this saga has dragged on and<br \/>\non, it is incredible to me that nobody has tried to explain and justify<br \/>\nany <i>specific<\/i> reform to the general public. The process has been<br \/>\nunfathomable, and entirely inward-looking. <b>People see that a major<br \/>\ncomplex change in the works.<\/b> This promises to transform services that<br \/>\nmost of them (remember) are satisfied with, so they have something to<br \/>\nlose. But nobody is in charge. Nobody is even talking to voters about<br \/>\nit, except to pat them on the head now and then and say &#8220;trust us&#8221;. I&#8217;m<br \/>\nsurprised that the majority opposed to reform is not bigger.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> That&#8217;s a good observation. It&#8217;s only natural to associate time spent<br \/>\non a project with complexity and change. (To really dumb things down<br \/>\nfor a bit: if your plumber goes into your bathroom, shouts curses and<br \/>\nclangs metal for three hours only to come out saying, &#8220;Just made a few<br \/>\ntweaks!&#8221; you will be rightfully suspicious of his visit.) Congress has<br \/>\nspent half a year building a near-trillion-dollar bill, and every few<br \/>\nmonths, Obama comes out to tell Americans, &#8220;For the vast majority of<br \/>\nyou, this changes nothing.&#8221; It does have that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic\"><i>alright now, move along, nothing to see here, please disperse<\/i><\/a> kind of false-seeming calmness.<\/p>\n<p>This reminds me of Ezra Klein&#8217;s recent <a href=\"http:\/\/voices.washingtonpost.com\/ezra-klein\/2010\/02\/the_problem_with_the_gang_of_s.html\">statement<\/a><br \/>\nthat while he first considered Sen. Max Baucus&#8217; interminable Gang of<br \/>\nSix experiment a useful cover to show conservative Democrats that there<br \/>\nwas no compromise to be had with Republicans, he now partly blames the<br \/>\nGang for wasting three months. I think the Pollster map supports the<br \/>\ntheory. Between June and September, there was no Senate bill to like or<br \/>\ndislike, and yet the opposition achieved plurality. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s difficult to draw any large lessons from the health care<br \/>\nboondoggle, but one good one might be that big reform bills are more<br \/>\nlike milk than wine. Some things by nature do not get better with time.<br \/><br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:887c0d92b55bf9cdce36aa855981baf1:3WXIf35U%2FnvHfYN%2BMH4bk5nd%2BoVNgx8WkbqvKPZyNLX3fcuUzNcPNzio7W5aHZcElZKEoHcLtZmH'><img border='0' title='Email this Article' alt='Email this Article' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/emailthis.png'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:61510bea6f741d52c123a3e117346ca0:iiCxgfHkkxQe6sRX0SJ2LhOlmD0DiwJg6FYxQFDOqVAkiVUTxDEf1ejh9DmHEQb4drkxbobpNLov'><img border='0' title='Add to digg' alt='Add to digg' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/digg.gif'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:6def635e5a944a9ea210ed51a694e11c:nRUzzIfrxjIyYhON0OGTIaPRmLgfNM8gYrLg80MgoQKWn0GvgstK8M72bgbJKoy1eS6WEV%2BtfWPP'><img border='0' title='Add to Reddit' alt='Add to Reddit' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/reddit.png'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:2a1c5a3a7457dd939f790a7ef0d547f5:%2FCoRpTxMIkXoVq95AVD0ZKKkJFLkr%2F1Zve0Y3GbpuC0J4OllxLT9uo8PWFw%2FhsbTJZDi1w43Sn6hNg%3D%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to Twitter' alt='Add to Twitter' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/twitter.png'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:0bb59ac4934369dc7ff8b4ff94d1709b:ZvT0gVcprW1Jc2lHd5DcZu1cgi91DkIuSzVTUuhZswYkQQeibwTTIrVlK9UvYDs%2B%2FKdwq%2FU%2BjeiC'><img border='0' title='Add to del.icio.us' alt='Add to del.icio.us' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/delicious.gif'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:f48333a780b72db601c024fd0a0d258f:SNBEzNez%2BFEb%2BJ85YUyhDfTaNT4hPK9AIryTQpYG0hXC40pL8XX%2BQumGk78a1iN1DpH9rqEm0mOFfA%3D%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to StumbleUpon' alt='Add to StumbleUpon' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/stumbleit.gif'\/><\/a><br \/>\n  <a style='font-size: 10px; color: maroon;' href='http:\/\/www.pheedcontent.com\/hostedMorselClick.php?hfmm=v3:c66b288e00ed28d3c4348a45b009a46d:K%2FYgrzO8s4PdKiDZpq7c%2BvlCuW9TRYI0LaEbMzk8ax15fhnqJHv2RrR3nRngtsz4wjJ02TOgWeaHgg%3D%3D'><img border='0' title='Add to Facebook' alt='Add to Facebook' src='http:\/\/images.pheedo.com\/images\/mm\/facebook.gif'\/><\/a><br \/>\n<br clear=\"both\" style=\"clear: both;\"\/><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/click.phdo?s=4c651f17ad68c2d1cf5c60f15199074f&#038;p=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" style=\"border: 0;\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/ads.pheedo.com\/img.phdo?s=4c651f17ad68c2d1cf5c60f15199074f&#038;p=1\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"0\" width=\"0\" border=\"0\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"http:\/\/a.rfihub.com\/eus.gif?eui=2225\"\/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/AtlanticBusinessChannel\/~4\/s9mtb3aKad8\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why did popular support for health care reform plunge? Well, it didn&#8217;t. If you look at the Pollster moving average of health care support and opposition, the story isn&#8217;t falling approval, but rising dissent. As you can see below support for health care reform slips a bit, but it mostly hovers around the mid-40s. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}