More oppose than support Republican Medicare plan: poll
Reporting by Donna Smith; Editing by David Lawder
June 8, 2011 (Reuters)
- More Americans oppose than support a Republican plan to revamp the Medicare
healthcare program for seniors, presenting a challenge to the party ahead of
next year's presidential and congressional elections.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on
Wednesday shows 43 percent of respondents oppose the Medicare plan proposed by
Representative Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee. Only 37
percent of respondents said they supported did and 20 percent said they were
not sure.
Voter anger over the Ryan proposal that would revamp
Medicare into a voucher-like system for future retirees helped give Democrats a
victory in a traditionally Republican congressional district in New York last month.
"Medicare is going to be an Achilles heel for them
going forward. It's going to be hard for Republicans to talk about it,"
said pollster Cliff Young.
The results ran mostly along party lines with 66 percent of
Republicans backing the plan and 69 percent of Democrats opposing it. Only 25
percent of independents said they supported the plan, while 39 percent opposed
it.
The poll divided questions about the proposal between a
group that was prompted about the "Ryan plan" and a group that was
given no indication that the questions were based on the proposal by the
Republican lawmaker.
Attitudes are mixed toward giving the elderly vouchers to
buy private health coverage, the poll shows.
Among those asked about the "Ryan plan" in the
questioning, 54 percent said they supported giving vouchers to Medicare
beneficiaries to purchase private insurance. Support for vouchers fell to 49
percent in the group not prompted about the Ryan plan.
Pollster Chris Jackson said questions reflected only factual
details about the plan with no information about what would happen to the
existing Medicare program. The Ryan plan would keep existing fee-for-service
Medicare for anyone currently 55 an older. But anyone retiring in 2022 would
get a voucher to purchase subsidized health plans from private insurers.
Jackson said the data
show the idea of vouchers is "reasonably acceptable" but also reflect
a basic uncertainty about the proposal.
The poll shows that 51 percent of people oppose the proposal
to gradually raise the age to qualify for Medicare to 67 from the current age
of 65.
The level of opposition was 50 percent in the group not
prompted about the Ryan plan.
The nationwide poll of 1,132 adults was conducted from June
3 through June 6 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The survey also showed that President Barack
Obama is still holding a big lead over possible
Republican rivals in the 2012 election race despite anxiety about the economy.
From Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/08/us-usa-medicare-poll-idUSTRE7575XU20110608