Poll: Fix health care, just don't mess with mine

A majority of Americans think that the nation's health-care system needs reform.

Just don't fiddle with the insurance they already have.

That was the result of the latest national Franklin & Marshall College Poll, due to be released today.

Three out of four of the 920 people surveyed from Feb. 2-8 want health-care reform, similar to the results of a similar poll released in September. But a majority in today's poll were happy with their current health care, with just one in five saying that the system does not meet their personal needs.

"There's just too many people satisfied with their health care," said poll director G. Terry Madonna. "They want reform for the people who don't have it. On the other hand, they want health-care costs in general to come down, and I don't think they'd be wild about paying more for it."

Half of the people in the poll had health insurance provided by an employer while 17 percent were on Medicare and 11 percent purchased their own plan.

The question of who has the best ideas for health-care reform prompted basically a three-way tie: 37 percent said President Obama, 33 percent said the Republicans in Congress and 30 percent said they did not know.

The poll played out as Obama's effort for national health-care legislation is foundering in Congress. The September poll results arrived after a long summer of angry health-care debate.

"The process was so bungled," Madonna said of the debate. "There's no argument there."

The economy and personal finances continue to rank as the most serious issue facing people in the poll - 64 percent ranked it as the top issue. That was up from 50 percent in September.

Issues like the war in Iraq, terrorism and national security barely registered as top concerns.

Obama fared well in foreign affairs, with 57 percent approving of the way he is handling the war in Afghanistan and 52 percent approving of his work on national-security issues. He did not do as well on the economy, with 45 percent approving of his work there.

One in three people believe that the country is headed in the right direction, virtually unchanged since the September poll.

The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.2 percent.