Poll cited in public option push

WASHINGTON — Two groups seeking to pressure Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., into supporting a new government health insurance plan, or public option, say they have some home-state poll numbers to back up the effort.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America commissioned a poll that asked 503 Nebraskans:

“Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government administered health insurance plan — something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get — that would compete with private health insurance plans?”

The response: 46 percent in favor and 44 percent opposed, with 10 percent unsure. The margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.

“There's this misperception in Nelson's office and the conventional wisdom crowd in Washington, D.C., that Nebraska is strongly opposed to a public option, and this poll blows that idea out of the water,” said Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder.

Nelson declined through a spokesman to be interviewed.

He has objected to a new public plan as described in the poll question. However, he has said that he is open to a version that would be primarily state-based or one that would be triggered in the event that the private sector failed to meet certain targets.

On the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., read letters from Nebraskans objecting to health care proposals that include the public option.

Johanns said in an interview that the public option has many problems, in particular that current proposals would undermine the private insurance sector and siphon money away from Medicare.

He said he hasn't done specific analysis of constituents' views on health care, but his personal experience is that Nebraskans are “pretty significantly” opposed to a new government plan.

Still, the poll numbers released Monday indicate that Nebraskans are pretty divided on the issue, said John Hibbing, a professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Hibbing noted that recent national opinion polling has found that more Americans support than oppose a public option. He said it makes sense that there would be a little less support for the proposal in a traditionally Republican state such as Nebraska.

“But we're certainly not wildly opposed to it,” Hibbing said.

The Nebraska poll was conducted Oct. 29 and 30 by Research 2000, a firm that has worked for the liberal blog Daily Kos as well as a number of mainstream newspapers.

The pollsters specifically asked how Nelson's vote would affect his support among Nebraskans.

“If Ben Nelson joined Republican senators in filibustering and killing a health care reform bill because it had a public health insurance option, would that make you more likely or less likely to vote for him in the 2012 general election, or would it have no real effect on your vote?”

Seventeen percent of respondents said such action by Nelson would make them more likely to vote for him, and 26 percent said it would make them less likely to vote for him. That left 57 percent saying it would have no effect how they voted.

Contact the writer:

202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com

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