| A new national poll released on Wednesday showed that overall health reform bills passed at the House and the Senate were still unpopular among American voters.
According to the survey by CNN and Opinion Research, 48 percent of 1,023 adults questioned said that lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill while 25 percent said Congress should pass legislation similar to the bill passed by the two chambers. Another 25 percent said Congress should stop all work on health care reform.
However, some of provisions of the bills were very popular, such as restrictions on health insurance companies that was supported by about 60 percent of interviewees, including some Republicans and independents.
The survey also found that nearly three quarters said lawmakers should pass some kind of reform and only a quarter wants Congress to stop working on health care.
A bipartisan meeting is scheduled on Thursday where Obama will join Democratic and Republican lawmakers in discussing how to move forward with health care reform, which has been stuck at Congress since the Democratic Party lost majority of 60 votes in the Senate.
Obama released a White House-drafted proposal on health care reform on Monday and challenged Republicans to present their own version. However, the latter called for scratching the bill from the beginning.
A separate poll by CNN and Opinion Research showed that two- thirds of Americans believes Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with President Obama, and 52 percent thinks Obama did not do enough to encourage bipartisanship. |
