Health care repeal urgency may be due to changing public sentiment

Before the ink was dry on President Barack Obama‘s signature on the historic health care reform bill, Republicans had already begun to campaign on their desire to repeal and replace the legislation, setting the stage for at least one major talking point during the 2010 mid-term elections. Recent polls, however, show that Americans don’t view the reform effort nearly as unfavorably as they did just months ago, and that might explain why at least one Iowa Republican is working so hard for repeal now.

Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, began circulating a discharge petition — a procedural option made famous by the movie Legally Blond 2 — that would force an up-or-down vote in the U.S. House on the vast majority of the bill. The petition had garnered 80 signatures as of July 1, and currently sits with 162 signatures, according to information released by King’s office. In order to force the vote, the petition will need support from 218 members of the U.S. House.

“None of the 34 House Democrats who voted against ‘Obamacare’ have yet signed on, while all but 13 House Republicans have or have agreed to do so,” King said in a prepared statement. “House Democrats who claim to oppose ‘Obamacare’ now face a clear choice: Stand with their ‘no’ vote on ‘Obamacare’ by signing the discharge petition, or stand with Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi by refusing to do so. The American people won’t be fooled: They understand that those who refuse to sign this discharge petition are, in fact, supporters of ‘Obamacare.’”

King isn’t the only Republican who wants reform to end before it gets fully underway. U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., is also circulating a discharge petition that would result in a full repeal of the legislation, which would then be replaced by a GOP-supported plan.

Some pundits have criticized the GOP’s repeal efforts as grand-standing in an effort to keep tea party activists energized, but a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation may shed new light on why Republicans are willing to sacrifice a key mid-term stump point on the alter of urgency.

The group surveyed just over 1,500 Americans, including more than 400 senior citizens, and found that 50 percent now hold favorable views of health care reform, with 35 percent holding an unfavorable view. Just a month ago, 41 percent of survey respondents viewed the legislation unfavorably. The findings, as well as those from earlier surveys, appear to indicate that the overall view of health care reform is increasingly coming under a more positive light by Americans.

The poll also found that misconceptions regarding health care reform, such as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley‘s, R-Iowa, statements that the governments shouldn’t be allowed to “pull the plug on grandma,” still circulate, especially among seniors. More than a third of the seniors that responded to the study incorrectly believed that the reforms will “allow a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare.”

Such a change in public sentiment gives credence to statements made by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, in the lead-up to passage of the legislation.

“I hope that we pass the bill, that it goes to conference and that we give it to the President and he signs it. I hope it is an issue next year. … I’d like to see the Republicans next year go out and say that is a bad deal for the people of America,” Harkin said in November 2009.