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Poll: Public Says Voice Not Heard In Health Debate

By Julie Rovner

Published September 30, 2009 12:01 AM

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Perhaps no other issue Congress deals with touches every American as intimately as health care. Yet a new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that, so far, the public feels profoundly shut out of the current health overhaul debate.

"Most people don't feel that they personally have a voice in this debate," said Mollyann Brodie, director of public opinion and survey research for the Kaiser Family Foundation. "In fact, 71 percent told us that Congress was paying too little attention to what people like them were saying."

Nancy Turtenwald is one of those people. The tourist from Milwaukee was walking around the sparkling new visitor center at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday. She was quick to agree with poll findings that the lawmakers debating the massive health overhaul bill just a few blocks away weren't much interested in problems like hers.

"I don't think they are people like us, you know?" she said. She thinks Congressional lawmakers know very little about the daily lives of the average American — and the health care costs they face. "How often do they go and buy gas and bread and stuff to see what it's really like for the people like us?"

So who does Turtenwald think Congress is listening to? "Lobbyists, and people who will get them reelected."

Still, according to the poll, the public is nearly evenly split about whether interest groups are a good or bad thing when it comes to health care.

Just over half — 51 percent — agree with the poll question "health care interest groups will play an important role in carrying out changes to the health care system, so it's important to have them on board with the legislation."

A somewhat smaller, but still substantial group (39 percent) agree, however, that "Congress should design the best health care legislation it can and not worry if health care interest groups support it or not."

And who does the public trust when it comes to health care interest groups?

Nurses got the highest vote of confidence, with 79 percent of those polled saying they have at least a fair amount of confidence that groups representing nurses would "recommend the right thing for the country when it comes to health care." Groups representing patients, doctors and seniors were next on the list.

Groups trusted the least were those representing insurance companies, drugmakers and large corporations.

Insurance companies and drugmakers were also among those respondents said were most responsible for the current problems facing health care. But so was the federal government.

That presents no small obstacle for lawmakers. "Half the public says that the federal government bears a lot of the responsibility for the problems that we face in our health care system," said Mollyann Brodie of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "So you know, certainly there is a challenge as the federal government is trying to address these problems, as they are also seen as one of the pieces of the challenge to start with."

Another challenge, says Bob Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health, is who the public does not blame — doctors, hospitals and patients themselves. Many experts say those are the groups most guilty of overusing the health care system. Thus, they are also the groups whose behavior is most targeted for change in the pending health care bills.

Yet "people are not focused on, 'Is something wrong with the delivery system?'" Blendon said. According to the poll, the public is focused on the insurance and pharmaceutical industry. And they very much think government is part of the problem.

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR news. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

While the politicians haggle over the details of health care, the public feels largely left out of the debate. That's one of the findings in a new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. We have two reports on health care this morning.

First, NPR's Julie Rovner talks to some of the people feeling ignored.

JULIE ROVNER: The cavernous new Capitol Visitor Center is just a couple of blocks from where the Finance Committee has been trying to decide the fate of the nation's health care system. But to Nancy Turtenwald of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it might as well be thousands of miles. One of her biggest concerns, she said, is that members of Congress simply aren't listening to people like her.

Ms. NANCY TURTENWALD: Because I don't think they're people like us, you know? How often do they go and buy gas and bread and stuff to see what it's really like out there for the people like us, and the health care and the cost of health care?

ROVNER: And who are the lawmakers listening to?

Ms. TURTENWALD: Lobbyists and people that'll get them reelected.

ROVNER: Preet Kang(ph) of Washington, D.C. was showing off the new visitor center to her husband, who hadn't seen it yet. But even though she lives inside the Beltway, she doesn't think the average person's voice is getting heard in the health care debate, either. And she agrees with Nancy Turtenwald about whose voice is getting heard.

Ms. PREET KANG: The health insurance companies, you know, the whole health care industrial complex.

ROVNER: Now, Kang, who was walking around with a Health Care Now sticker on her purse, couldn't be much further apart on the political spectrum from Damien Westrick(ph). He's a retired hospital administrator from Hillsboro, Illinois, and a self-described Fox News fan. But he's got a similar view of what's going on over in the Hart Building.

Mr. DAMIEN WESTRICK: They're not listening to the American people. If they were, they would take time to look at the whole issue.

ROVNER: That nonscientific poll pretty well paralleled the more scientific findings in the new NPR/Kaiser/Harvard poll. Mollyann Brodie is the Kaiser Foundation's polling director.

Ms. MOLLYANN BRODIE (Director Polling, Kaiser Family Foundation): Most people don't feel like they personally have a voice in this debate. In fact, 71 percent told us that Congress was paying too little attention to what people like them were saying. And two-thirds say that there's no group in Washington that's representing their views.

ROVNER: But one finding that did surprise researchers, says Brodie, is that the public doesn't uniformly think that interest group involvement in writing a health bill is a bad thing.

Ms. BRODIE: About half thought that interest groups have too narrow of a focus and that they shouldn't be at the table. On the other hand, about half thought that they actually have a really important perspective to add and that they play an important role in the health care system and that they should be at the table.

ROVNER: Groups the public said they trust to recommend the right thing for the country include those representing nurses, doctors and patients, yet those are among the groups that most experts say are most guilty of overusing the health care system. And they are the groups whose behavior is targeted for change in the pending health care bills. Bob Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health says that creates a disconnect for the public.

Professor BOB BLENDON (Harvard School of Public Health): In our poll, when you say who's responsible for the current problems they see in health care, it's insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and the federal government. It's not focused at all on the way the system currently operates in terms of delivery.

ROVNER: And that's a big part of what's creating so much confusion, he says. The public and the policymakers not only don't agree on a solution, they don't agree on who's causing the problem in the first place.

Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.

MONTAGNE: And you can get complete results of that poll as well as all our coverage of health care overhaul debate at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Source: NPR

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