Poll: Don't Tax Current Healthcare Coverage to Pay for Universal Coverage

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Health care reform was second only to "righting" the economy during the last election as the most important issue on which most Americans' were going to vote as they went to the polls. Now that there's a president in office who wants action on health care, and a Congress that pledges to change health care as we know it, there's only one small problem. Only 3 percent of Americans told Synovate pollsters they are willing to pay with new taxes on their employer-paid health insurance coverage in order to pay for other Americans' care. That, as reported by my colleague Paul Bedard.

Rather predictable, I'd say, wouldn't you? Just about everyone wants every benefit Uncle Sam is willing to dole out. But when it comes to paying for other people's needs, we Americans take the NIMBY approach: Not In (or more appropriately, from) My Back Yard.

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