Pollster Behind Controversial Public Option Poll Has Long Ties To Insurance Industry

[SpartanDem]

Source: Huffintington Post

The Republican half of the bipartisan team of pollsters behind a new, controversial poll on health care has longstanding ties to the health insurance industry that critics say biased the results.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday, authored by Republican pollster Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart, showed a majority of respondents opposing a public option for insurance coverage. McInturff is one of the most respected pollsters in Washington, and his work is often treated as straightforward and honest. But the pollsters' decision to alter the language of their August survey has raised the eyebrows of industry observers.

Instead of asking whether people should be given a choice between a public and private plan -- as NBC/WSJ had done in its June 2009 survey -- the pollsters dropped the word "choice" in their July and August polls. In its place they asked whether people favored or opposed creating a public plan to compete with private insurers. Whereas two months ago, 76 percent of respondents said they felt it was either extremely or quite important to have a public option, in August that number was down to 43 percent.

"I think it's a very big deal to drop the word," said Wendell Potter, a former vice president at the insurance giant CIGNA. "This has been a strategy the industry has had for many years. They ask questions in many ways, knowing the way they are asking the questions will skew the result. Dropping the word choice is very important. It plays into some of the fears some of the people have been hearing lately, that the government would leave them without an option."

As Potter pointed out, McInturff has done extensive work on behalf of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) -- a major reform opponent. His firm, Public Opinion Strategies, played a leading role in crafting the industry's message and "voter empowerment" programs during the 2004 election. He himself has done fieldwork on AHIP's behalf and lists the insurance giant as a health care client. His work for AHIP, Potter says, extends back more than a decade.



Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/pollster-behind-controver_n_263057.html

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Liberal media my ass

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Both those pollsters understand the need to phrase the question properly.

They also know that changing the phrasing so dramatically creates a barrier to comparison to the earlier poll results.

The Huff Post article has some good discussion on this.

[Captain Hilts]

6. Split sampling can solve/demonstrate the role of language. It's done on abortion all the time.nt

[Gormy Cuss]

7. They knew better than to change the wording and present the data as if opinion had changed

from the previous polls -- they do seem to be claiming a time series after all. There are several ways to test alternate wordings but the crux of the matter here is that a highly experienced pollster acted unprofessionally by failing to make a declaration that the poll question results weren't comparable to the similar question asked previously. Had he tested the alternate wording and found similar results THAT should have been declared in the results along with a methodological statement. That of course assumes that the pollster wasn't trying to cook the results.

[kevsters]

2. Everyone Must See This Video Of Hannity

Hannity would rather see 15 million people suffer than see health care reform pass.

Make this video viral!!!

http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2608

[Overseas]

3. Do you think people should have the choice between A, B and C?

is very different from
Do you think people should have A?

Choice is a buzz word the insurance industry has trumpeted in their defense all these years; they know its power, so they put it in round 1 to get a high positive for the President's agenda--
then drop the key word in round 2 to fit the "His popularity is plummeting; people are scared of reform!" scenarios.

Glad Wendell Potter the PR insider got to comment on that polling technique. Just one word change and the numbers can drop predictably.

Wonder how many other surprising polls have had just a teeny weeny word change or two between rounds.

[Demeter]

4. I Think We Should Have Single Payer

I'm in the majority on this, and we all vote. Ignore us at your peril.

[Captain Hilts]

5. If they phrase the questions correctly, or do a split sample, it doesn't matter. nt