In the morass of buzzwords and legislative minutiae, some fundamental questions about health care are obscured. Gallup asked a central one: Whose responsibility is it to provide health insurance? By a huge 62 to 35 percent margin, Democrats say it’s the government’s. Republicans believe the opposite—by an 89 to 10 percent margin, they say it is up to individuals. What’s remarkable is that independents are far closer to Republicans: by 64 to 34 percent, they maintain that the responsibility lies with individuals. By a 61 to 37 percent margin, Americans overall also say it is the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s. Gallup concludes:

An important principle behind the current push for healthcare reform is that healthcare is a basic right that the government ought to guarantee for all Americans. Not only are the details of achieving universal coverage proving to be highly controversial, but it is unclear how strongly Americans support the premise.

Well that’s a squirrely way to put it. We actually do see some dramatic evidence that not only have Democrats failed to persuade their fellow citizens of the merits of their particular scheme(s), but they have badly lost the philosophical argument. The mantra that health care is  a “right” has seemingly not carried the day. Americans might like the government to help out, but the notion that government is defective in some regard unless it becomes their health-care provider is not catching on.

So many TV appearances and so many speeches, yet the president finds himself unable to move his fellow citizens off their cranky attachment to individual responsibility and limited government. We must be such a disappointment to him.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 9:01 AM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.