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Martin Wood, a self-employed Charlotte repairman, doesn't like paying more than $800 a month for health insurance. He just doesn't believe President Obama's remedy would help.
"Something needs to be done. I'm not sure the government needs to be the one doing it," says Wood, 52. "Our kids are going to end up paying for all this."
He's among a narrow majority of Carolinians who favor health care changes but not the sweeping overhaul proposed by the president and Democratic leaders in Congress, according to a new Charlotte Observer/WCNC News/WFAE Carolinas Poll.
The poll, conducted Sept. 14-20, shows that three out of four Carolinians are generally satisfied with their current insurance. And like Wood, 52 percent favor just small or incremental changes.
The survey also shows:
•One of four Carolinians want broader changes including the kind of government-funded public insurance option proposed by some Democrats. The figure is higher among young adults and African Americans as well as in Mecklenburg County.
•More than 28 percent of Carolinians worry that no reforms will pass. The numbers are higher among 18-to-24-year-olds and those with incomes under $40,000.
•But nearly one in five people - many of them worried about bigger government and the cost of reform - want no change at all. That view is more common among South Carolinians and whites.
"What you're seeing in the polls is that the public is divided," says John Oberlander, an associate professor of medicine and health policy at UNC Chapel Hill. "The debate over health care is not just about health care. It's about government spending and taxes and deficits. And ... those broader issues are seeping into the health reform debate."
Varying degrees of support
As Congress debates reforms, polls show varying degrees of support.
For example, a CBS News/New York Times Poll released Thursday showed 65 percent of Americans favor a government health insurance plan. A Wall Street Journal NBC Poll this week showed 46 percent of people support such a plan.
Many polls, however, have shown broad support for more modest changes, such as requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and limiting malpractice awards.
"There's no question that we're going to have to have some changes," says Frank Barnes, a health care worker from Charleston.
"There definitely needs to be better access to health care because there are people who fall through the cracks ... I just don't think you can have a public option that is taxpayer subsidized that is not going to compete unfairly with private (insurance) plans."
Barnes, 57, says most proposals fail to deal with costly chronic diseases caused by obesity, smoking and sedentary lifestyles. "I don't see us significantly lowering the cost of health care without reducing the demand," he says.
Faye Thompson, 55, a retired Army medical technician from Fayetteville, also wants some changes - for example, more access to preventive care. But she worries some reforms would simply make government too big.
"Government can't fund everything because who's the one paying?" says Thompson.
The debate continues
On the other side is Susan Orsbon, a Charlotte preschool teacher. She favors more expansive changes, including a public option.
"Everybody has a right to medical care," says Orsbon, 61. "Everybody deserves a certain level and not everybody's getting that level."
She worries less about the cost of extending coverage than the rising cost of private insurance.
"Even if you have insurance, your premiums are going up and your coverage is going down," she says. "It's sort of like your own personal budget. How do you want to spend your money?"
Michael O'Shaughnessy wants government to butt out.
A Charlottean who works for a chemical company, he's among 18 percent of Carolinians who want no changes in the system.
"We already have socialized medicine," he says. "Getting government involved is just going to make things more inefficient and drive up cost not just of health care but the whole program to administer it.
"If they think getting government involved is going to reduce health care dollars, they're wrong."
Democrats, who control Congress, hope to pass some version of reforms.
"I'm not looking at any polls," says U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat. "I'm looking at being answerable to my constituents. And most of my constituents say they favor health care reforms ... in a way that will constrain costs and cover as many people as we can get covered."
