The Clock is Ticking on Health Reform: What Do You Think? (March 2010)

NASE Monthly Poll

March 2010

Results

The Clock is Ticking on Health Reform:  What Do You Think?

President Obama is pushing for a majority vote on health reform legislation after unsuccessfully trying to broker a compromise between Republicans and Democrats.  Please take NASE's Monthly Survey regarding your thoughts on health reform.

Click here to download survey results:  NASE Monthly Poll- March 2010 Results- Health Reform (1)

1)    In your opinion, how important is it that our health care system be reformed?
Answer Options	Response Percent
Very important	56.7%
Somewhat important	20.9%
Slightly important	12.9%
Not at all important	9.5%

2)    In reforming the health care system, what is MOST important to you and your business?
Answer Options	Response Percent
Lowering health premium costs and ensuring they do not continue to increase.	42.0%
Increasing choice in health plans and benefit options.	16.4%
Improving the way our nation delivers health care to provide better care and minimize medical mistakes.	7.9%
Reforming the insurance market so individuals cannot be denied coverage due to their health status or age.	24.0%
Ensuring that the uninsured have access to health coverage.	9.6%

3)    In reforming the health care system, what is LEAST important to you and your business?
Answer Options	Response Percent
Lowering health premium costs and ensuring they do not continue to increase.	5.8%
Increasing choice in health plans and benefit options.	32.4%
Improving the way our nation delivers health care to provide better care and minimize medical mistakes.	25.4%
Reforming the insurance market individuals cannot be denied coverage due to their health status or age.	7.2%
Ensuring that the uninsured have access to health coverage.	29.3%

4)    Do you support the current proposal to reform our health care system?
Answer Options	Response Percent
Yes	28.0%
No	59.9%
Undecided	12.1%

5)    If no, please indicate what is your MAIN concern with the current health reform proposal?
Answer Options	Response Percent
The cost of my health coverage will increase.	5.2%
My taxes will increase.	4.5%
Government will become too involved with our health care.	58.3%
It will increase our deficit and be too costly to our country.	22.8%
I will not be able to keep my current health insurance and medical professionals.	0.4%
The quality of our health care system will decline.	8.7%

6)    Do you think that policymakers have listened to and incorporated the needs of the self-employed and small business in the health reform proposal?
Answer Options	Response Percent
Yes	13.4%
No	74.2%
Do Not Know	12.4%

Please share with us additional comments you have on health reform efforts.

Subset of responses:

Our leaders are locked up in partisanship.  They do not have the concerns of their constituancy at heart.  This is an agenda that they are comitted on pushing through.  Slow down, get jobs first, improve the economy, and then work collectively on reform.

I think it is awful that the members of Congress are only thinking of political gain and not the people.

I do not trust that the government has our best interests in mind.  I am concerned about the power the government is attempting to sieze with this bill and the effect it will have on generations to come.

They are going down the wrong path.  Free market solutions need to solve the problems not government.

I think they should tackle it in small pieces rather than such a radical overhaul of the system.

We need to get something done.  This bill is imperfect but at least it is a start.  The current situation dominated by the insurance companies is criminal, in my opinion.

Yes, we need health care reform but the massive plan they are trying to ram through now is filled with sweetheart deals, other legislation not related to health care, double talk and union deals.  It needs to be scrapped and a new bill drawn up.

Every time an American dies because he or she could not afford health ins. - a little of our Country dies along with them.  It needs to change!!!

If I ran my business like the government runs theirs I would have been in bankruptcy a long time ago!!!! They need to wake up to reality!!!

This current bill is going to cripple America.  It will give me a pile of new mandates and increase the cost of hiring.  It will reduce the care that I, my family, and my employees receive.  It will do nothing to reduce costs other than price controls.  It is bad for America.  There are simple market solutions that would lead to getting the costs under control -- but those lead to the single payer of the consumer of the health care paying for his own health care, also known as freedom, which the government will never allow.

I am adamantly opposed to this bill. It is a government power play that will diminish our freedom. Economically, it will bankrupt our nation. It is diametrically opposed to what our Founding Fathers envisioned for our nation.

As a small business owner, my biggest concern is to be in a position to offer good health insurance coverage to my employees at a reasonable cost without being penalized for age, pre-existing conditions, etc.

 Methodology

The above survey is part of an online poll series conducted by the National Association for the Self-Employed.  We received a total of 1,284 responses to the March 2010 survey.

About the NASE

The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) is the nation’s leading resource for the self-employed and micro-businesses, bringing a broad range of benefits to help entrepreneurs succeed and to drive the continued growth of this vital segment of the American economy. The NASE is a 501(c) (6) non-profit organization and provides big-business advantages to hundreds of thousands of micro-businesses across the United States. For more information, visit the association’s web site at www.NASE.org.

Survey Results