WASHINGTON — Democratic ideas for fixing the healthcare system to cover the uninsured enjoy more support among Americans than proposals coming from Republicans, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll shows.
The poll also found that a restive public was pessimistic about the direction of the country and that voters were dissatisfied with President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress. Congress was shown to be more unpopular than Bush: Its approval rating was 22%, the president's 35%.
Healthcare is widely seen as the top domestic issue in next year's presidential race.
Two of the main proposals advanced by Democrats received majority support in the poll.
Sixty-two percent said they supported requiring large employers to help pay for coverage whereas 31% opposed it. And 51% said they favored a mandate that individuals purchase health insurance, much as drivers are required to carry auto coverage; 39% disagreed.
Tax breaks to make insurance more affordable -- a leading Republican idea -- more closely divided the public, with 44% backing that approach and 45% opposing it.
In one of the most politically significant results, the poll finds that independents and moderates were generally lining up with Democrats in the healthcare debate.
The survey also suggested an explanation for the emerging alignment: Independents were most likely to complain about "job lock" -- the view that they are stuck in jobs they don't like solely because of health benefits.
In all, 20% of independents said they or someone in their household were forced to stay in a job because it provided healthcare, compared with 13% of Democrats and 5% of Republicans.
"Independents are more insecure in terms of the issue of 'job lock,' " which causes them to lean more toward Democrats on the healthcare issue than Republicans, said Robert Blendon, a public opinion expert at the Harvard School of Public Health. The poll found that Americans were divided on one of the basic questions surrounding the healthcare debate: who should bear the main responsibility in securing health insurance.
Twenty-nine percent said it is the responsibility of government; 23% said employers; 24% said individuals should take care of themselves, without help from government or employers; and 19% said it is a shared responsibility.
The survey, conducted Friday through Monday, was supervised by Times Poll Director Susan Pinkus. The questions were asked of 1,209 adults, and the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
