A pair of new polls disagree on whether a government overhaul of the nation's health care system will leave people better off or worse off.
The polls -- one by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the other by Rasmussen Research Reports -- do not provide much in the way of clues that might explain the discrepancy.
Both ask whether the plans for revise the way health care and health insurance are provided will be an improvement or not.
The Rasmussen poll's answer to that question is worse, 54 percent to 20 percent, while the Kaiser poll says the country as a whole would do better, 54 percent to 27 percent, although fewer people in the Kaiser poll think their own families would do better 42 percent to 24 percent.
The Rasmussen poll also found that people thought the passage of health care overhaul would make costs go up, 60 percent to 16 percent.
The Kaiser poll was based on telephone interviews with 1,203 adults nationwide Nov. 5-12 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points on questions asked of the entire sample. The Rasmussen poll was based on data gathered by automated telephone Nov. 21-22 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Make that two polls, one conclusion:
People want health care reform, they just don't support the Democrat plan working its way through congress:
Rasmussen (one of the pollsters cited in the post) responds:
"So, how did the blog posting conclude that the results were so different? Because they compared a Kaiser question about health care reform in general to a Rasmussen question about the plan working its way through Congress. At a time when people want reform but don’t like what they’re hearing about the Congressional plan, that’s a pretty big difference. Compare apples to oranges and you make a mess.
For consumers of polling data, this is why it’s important to read carefully the questions that are asked. Even more important, it’s critical to see if those offering commentary and analysis are accurately reflecting what the polls say. In general, the weakest part of the polling process is the punditry commentary on it rather than the polls themselves. Many, perhaps most, of the time that people cite dramatically different poll results they are citing fundamentally different questions."
and
"In general, the weakest part of the polling process is the punditry commentary on it rather than the polls themselves. Many, perhaps most, of the time that people cite dramatically different poll results they are citing fundamentally different questions."
-- http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/november_2009/when_pundits_compare_apples_to_oranges_one_look_at_health_care_polling
Posted by: ElToro | November 27, 2009 1:10 PM
cqpolitics cognitive deduction ability is = to the pus running out of an infected boil on a baboon's posterier
Posted by: max easterly | November 27, 2009 4:19 PM
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