socialmedian: Older and Wealthier People are More Likely to Oppose Government Health Care

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Older and Wealthier People are More Likely to Oppose Government Health Care

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right

Oct 21, 2009

Summary

You will perhaps not be surprised to hear that people who are over 65 and with higher incomes are more likely to oppose government health care. But I was surprised the pattern was so strong:

(Click to see the full-size version.)

The exact question wording was, "Providing health insurance for people who do not already have it--should the federal government spend more on it, the same as now, less, or no money at all?" Our maps show our estimated percentages of people responding "more" (rather than "the same," "less," or "none") to this question, within each age/income group, within each state.

I apologize right now for only having data from 2000 and 2004. I'm trying to get more recent polling data, but in the meantime, the relative stability from 2000 to 2004 gives us a little bit of confidence that we're seeing something real here, not merely an election-year blip.

Here's 2000 ("Providing health care for people who do not already have it--should the federal government spend more money on this, the same as now, less or no money at all?"):