Poll: Majority of Voters Back Governor’s Health Care Reform Plan

Nearly 70% of California voters believe the state's health care system needs major reform, according to a poll released Friday by the Public Policy Institute of California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

According to the poll, 72% of respondents support a health care reform proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), compared to 61% in favor of an overhaul plan by Democratic legislative leaders.

The poll found that almost 50% of California residents said they are following negotiations between Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to overhaul the health care system.

Mark Baldassare, executive director of the institute, said the governor's focus on "shared responsibility and spreading the costs around" to help pay for his reform proposal was "overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and has more supporters among Republicans" than the Democrats' reform measure.

Only immigration ranked above health care as a top concern for California, according to voters surveyed for the poll (Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/21).

According to the poll, California voters are evenly split on extending health insurance coverage to undocumented immigrant children, a proposal supported by Schwarzenegger.

However, support for the issue registers at 61% among a larger survey sample that included people who are not registered to vote (Shaw, Stockton Record, 9/21).

The poll is based on a telephone survey of 2,003 California residents from Sept. 4 to Sept. 11. The margin of error for the poll was plus or minus two percentage points overall, while the margin of error for likely voters was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Breaking the sample down to Republicans and Democrats, the margin of error rose to plus or minus three percentage points (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/21).

Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said, "This poll, like all the polls we've seen this year, proves that Californians want health care reform and support what the governor is doing" (Office of the Governor release, 9/20).