Citizens and Businesses

• Overwhelming Support – expressed to the U.S. Congress working group on health care
• Polls and Chart of Americans’ Support
• Petitions and Stories
• Meetings with Citizens
• Medical Professionals
• Businesses
• Endorsements

Overwhelming Support

• The U.S. Congress Citizens’ Health Care Working Group documented overwhelming support for
  • a national health program over nine other solutions,
  • a single health care system to be the top priority objective, and
  • single-payer national health insurance, as per participant representative comments.

Polls and Chart of Americans’ Support

• An Associated Press - Yahoo Poll in December 2007 documented:
  • Question ISS14. The United States should adopt a universal health insurance program in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers: 65% yes; 34% no; 2% refused / not answered
    
  • Question ISS15. Do you consider yourself a supporter of a single-payer health care system, that is a national health plan financed by taxpayers in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan, or not?: 54% yes; 44% no; 2% refused / not answered
    
• An ABCNews/Washington Post poll in 2003 documented that Americans favor a universal health insurance program by 2-1 (62% for, 32% against) over the current employer-based system.
• A Harris Poll of October 2006 documented that 96% of Americans support Medicare and 75% support universal health insurance.
• “Universal care appeals to USA” – “Fifty-six percent say they would prefer universal coverage to the current system, … ” — USA Today, Oct 2006
• “Public opinion on health care reform” – February 2007

Within this poll questions 7, 9, 14, 18, and 20-74 are on health care:

• #25 — 95%: serious problem that many Americans do not have health insurance
• #27 — 64%: federal government should guarantee health insurance for all
• #34 — 84%: expand children program to cover ALL uninsured children, not just low & moderate income families
• #38 — 47%: one health insurance program for all administered by the government vs. 38% keep current system where many people get their insurance from private employers and some have no insurance

See the report itself from the The New York Times / CBS News Poll Feb. 23-27, 2007 and PNHP’s Don McCanne’s coverage of more questions plus comments

Petitions and Stories

• Citizens submitted petitions and health care stories. In the spring of 2007 U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators each received a 140-page booklet “Petitions to Congress from the People”_pdf dated April 24, 2007 from Healthcare-Now. The document communicated thousands of petitions and health care “horror stories.”
  • More information is available at Petitions and Personal Stories.

Meetings with Citizens

• New Hampshire 4-3-2007 community meeting on health care conducted by Barack Obama with very knowledgeable and very clear support for single-payer from participants
• Iowa 4-5-2007 community meeting on health care conducted by Barack Obama with strong expressions of dissatisfaction with current health insurance options

Medical Professionals

• Most Physicians Endorse Single-Payer National Health Insurance
  • “…63.5% of (Massachusetts) physicians chose a single-payer system for “which structure would provide the best care for the most people for a fixed amount of money”

Businesses

• Small Businesses Support National Health Insurance - PNHP 4-20-07
• Auto Industry
  • The Big 3 automakers in Canada strongly support the Canadian system
  • U.S. Auto Industry Supports Universal Healthcare… in Canada – 12-15-05
  • Big 3 in Canada vs. USA — healthcare double standard – 04-27-05
  • GM Canada donates large sum to Ontario hospitals – 06-09-00

Endorsements

• See the lists of endorsers/supporters of single-payer from various kinds of organizations, such as these examples: businesses, churches and unions.