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Support seems to be waning a bit.
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July 24, 2009
For Public, Obama Didn�t Fill in Health Blanks
By KEVIN SACK
SNELLVILLE, Ga. � As Craig Brown watched President Obama�s news conference on Wednesday night on his TiVo-equipped television, he kept hitting the pause button so he could throw questions at the image frozen on the screen.
How much will this health care plan really cost, he asked. How can we cover nearly everybody without higher taxes or debt? Who is going to decide which treatments are allowed? Why cannot they just get rid of the waste without changing the whole system?
Like many in the country, Mr. Brown, a 36-year-old father of four who lives in an Atlanta suburb, has grown increasingly anxious about Washington�s efforts to reconfigure health care and what it may mean for his middle-class family. Although he and his wife, Judith, supported John McCain in the presidential race, they find Mr. Obama an earnest and compelling pitchman. But they remain frustrated by the lack of available detail about his plan�s contours and cost.
They say they feel they are being asked to buy on spec from a government they do not trust. And they have lots of questions.
�The bottom line is there are so many unknowns,� said Ms. Brown, 35, who works part time at her church and cares for her young children. �What we do know is there is going to be more government control, and with more control you�re going to have fewer choices. It�s an innate part of being American to have those choices.�
A similar unease was apparent in three other living rooms where families gathered to watch the news conference. An affluent small-business owner from near Chicago, a middle-class manager from Denver, and an uninsured worker from Cleveland each expressed skepticism that change would improve their lots.
Although she may well benefit from Mr. Obama�s plan to subsidize health insurance for the working poor, Rowena Ventura, the uninsured worker from Cleveland, wondered whether she could afford it. �I�m worried because they�re talking about forcing people to buy insurance,� said Ms. Ventura, a registered Democrat and part-time health care worker. �You just can�t ask any more of me. You just can�t.�
Ms. Ventura, 44, who also attends community college, has moved her ailing mother into the living room of the house she shares with her disabled husband. She said she recently discovered a lump on her left foot but cannot afford to see a doctor about it. Yet she is cynical about Mr. Obama�s prescription.
�You see,� she said, gesturing at Mr. Obama on the television, �he�s saying he wants to continue private insurance, but then he says they�re part of the problem. Well, which is it? It�s just ridiculous.�
Dean Raschke, a McCain voter who owns two Chicago-area businesses, one providing roadside assistance and the other making debit cards, said he worried that Washington would end up taxing the health benefits he provides to his 50 employees. He said he also feared that Congress would raise his income taxes to pay for the plan, although his earnings are well below the $1-million-a-year threshold now being considered.
�I have very conflicted emotions because I do want to help people who aren�t as fortunate as we are,� said Mr. Raschke, 38, watching the news conference with his wife, Jill. �But I have a big issue about what this health care plan would do to small businesses like mine that already have a health care plan. I�m afraid that people could be unintentionally harmed.�
Recent polls have detected a modest slippage in public support for the kinds of changes being considered in Congress, and in Mr. Obama�s handling of health care. The president has made the case for his plan at scripted events each day this week, including at a town-hall-style meeting in Cleveland on Thursday.
Mr. Obama acknowledged the spectrum of concerns during Wednesday�s news conference.
�I understand that people are feeling uncertain about this,� he said. �They feel anxious, partly because we�ve just become so cynical about what government can accomplish.� He said he understood that people might prefer the devil they know.
But the president�s expression of empathy provided scant comfort to the Browns. They still did not feel they were getting straight talk, as when Mr. Obama responded to a question about what Americans would have to sacrifice.
�He said they�re going to have to give up paying for things they don�t need, and that was an awesome answer for a politician,� Mr. Brown said sardonically. �You mean I don�t have to give up anything I already have?�
The Browns are Jamaican immigrants who met in college in Florida. Mr. Brown gained citizenship in 1999; his wife expects to do so next year. The family is insured through his job at a family-owned trophy shop, where he earns about $38,000 a year.
Mr. Brown said he realized that his escalating insurance premiums, which have doubled since 2006, had suppressed his wages. He noted that he and his wife were still struggling to pay off $3,000 in uncovered medical expenses from the birth of their youngest child.
But the Browns said Mr. Obama and the Democrats had not convinced them of the need for radical change. They said the notion of establishing a new government health plan to compete against private insurers seemed un-American. They questioned the wisdom and fairness of taxing the rich. And they said individuals should bear more responsibility for staying healthy.
�I know the system is not perfect, but I�m not completely convinced it�s broken,� Mr. Brown said. �And even if it�s broken, I�m not sure the government is the solution.�
Unlike the Browns, Liz Wessen, 32, a manager for a market research firm in Denver, supported Mr. Obama in November. But that good will does not negate her nervousness about the money being spent in Washington.
�My only concern is that this comes on the heels of the stimulus package,� Ms. Wessen said from her home in the Highlands neighborhood. �Where is this money supposed to be coming from? I�m not sure if this is the best time to fix another enormous problem.�
Watching the president, she said she was pleased to hear that the Democrats wanted to prevent insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and to allow those who change jobs to hold on to their coverage. But she said she wanted more specifics and wished that Mr. Obama would dictate terms to Congress rather than merely prod lawmakers to act.
�I think the press conference was more convincing people of his motives than it was to actually explain the program,� Ms. Wessen said. �I expected it to be more.� |
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