77% Support "Choice" Of A Public Option

New polling data shows once again if you ask the polling question properly, they overwhelming majority of Americans support a public option in health care reform.

A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.

But the numbers tell another story, as well.

Earlier in the week, after pollsters for NBC dropped the word "choice" from their question on a public option, they found that only 43 percent of the public were in favor of "creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies."

Opponents of the president's agenda jumped on the findings as evidence that backing for the public option was dropping. Proponents responded by arguing that NBC's tinkering with the language of the question (which it had also done in its July survey) had contributed to the drop in favorability for a public plan.

SurveyUSA's poll, which was commissioned by the progressive group MoveOn.org, a proponent of the public plan, gives credence to those critiques. While arguments about what type of language best describe the public option persist --"choice" is considered a trigger word that everyone naturally supports -- it seems clear that the framing of the provision goes a long way toward determining its popularity.

In asking its question SurveyUSA used the same exact words that NBC/Wall Street Journal had used when conducting its June 2009 survey. That one that found 76 percent approval for the public option: "In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance--extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?"

Now think about something for a moment. If the wording of a question when polling the popularity of a public option can make a major difference then it stands to reason that the wording from people advocating for a public option will also make a huge difference on how it will be received. That is why for months now I have been saying that President Obama and other prominenet Democrats in Congress should be using the word "freedom" in association with the public option. I have no doubt in my mind that if our Democratic leaders started saying that providing a public option gives people

"the freedom to choose"

what kind of insurance they want that they would see a major bump in their approval ratings. While it is on some levels cynical to rely heavily on messaging tricks, the truth is it actually does work. The word "freedom" appeals to most Americans on a visceral level and just makes them more open to which ever proposal is offering them more of it.

Its still not too late to start injecting this into the messaging during the fight for health care reform I just don't know if they will ever do it. For the life Of me I can't understand why nobody on our side has seen this before. Everything Republicans talk about damn near begins and ends with the word freedom. This is an easy but effective way to turn that right back on them. At the very lease somebody could do it as a trial balloon to see the results. If anybody knows somebody that knows somebody that works for somebody, please pass this along.