Today, the Washington Post reported that the Virginia state Senate Commerce and Labor Committee approved a measure that would ban a federal health insurance mandate if passed in Washington D.C.
Though, the provision still has to make it past the full Virginia Senate where Democrats hold a small majority, this committee vote should make the ears of lawmakers on Capitol Hill perk up.
The president and Democrats in Congress have been fighting back waning public support of the health reform and this surely won’t help. Many pundits and critics of the current legislation are saying the gubernatorial losses for the Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, and most recently the election of Senator Scott Brown in Massachusetts, are a sign that the public is turning on the Democrats’ health reform efforts.
It could just be further proof that the pundits, this time, are right.
But it wasn’t all bad news today for the Democrats. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that when the public were informed of specific provisions in the current health care and health insurance legislation, their support significantly improved.
From a press release of the poll:
“Sixty-seven percent said they were more supportive [of the health reform bill] when they heard that the legislation included health insurance exchanges, and 63 percent felt that way after being told that people could no longer be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Of the 27 elements of the legislation tested in the poll, 17 moved a majority to feel more positively about the bills and two moved a majority to be more negative. ”
Based on this poll, it sounds like the Democrats aren’t doing such a great job pleading their case.