Polls Say Americans Want Patients' Bill of Rights
LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: The House of Representatives is expected to vote tonight or early tomorrow on a proposed patients' bill of rights. GOP leaders are pushing a compromise worked out by President Bush and Georgia Republican Charlie Norwood. Now, the bill is supposed to protect consumers involved in disputes with insurance companies and health maintenance organizations, but Democrats say it doesn't go far enough. Even if the compromised bill passes the House, critics say they will to try to pass a tougher bill in the Senate. How do Americans feel about a patients' bill of rights ? Let's check with Gallup Poll editor-in-chief, Frank Newport, in Princeton, New Jersey. Frank, what have you got?</s>FRANK NEWPORT, GALLUP POLL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Lou, we've really been studying the data on this one, because it is important. And I can tell you right off of the bat that Americans have signed this things a high priority, and they say that they want Congress to pass a patients' bill of rights. But when we really look at the numbers, we don't see that Americans fully understand what it is that they're going to be getting. We think it just sounds like it's something they need. Let's show you first of all just the approval rating. I mentioned it was high priority, and look at this. When we just asked: "Should Congress pass the Patients' Bill of Rights?" Seventy-one to 14 -- we don't see numbers like this a lot. Usually legislation has some contention to it. This is something that looks like it's a no- brainer to the public -- yes, we want it! But as I mentioned, when we get into it a little more, we're not sure people really know exactly what's involved. For example, you mentioned a moment ago, Lou, the wrangling between the Democrats and the Republicans. We asked the public, "Do you understand the differences between the Democratic and the Republican approaches to the bill," we asked that a little while ago. And you can see, being quite honest with us, 66 percent of Americans said no, they don't know what the differences are in the bill. And also, I should point out, we ask an open-ended question a couple of weeks ago, "What is the Patients' Bill of Rights?" Very few came back and talked about the ability to sue or the court provisions, that is a lot of what the discussion is about. Most people came back and said, well, somehow we think it'll give us more rights as patients. A little -- logical, there, they kind of restated the name of the bill, itself. And that leads our analysts to feel that Americans don't know a lot of the guts of this thing, therefore it may not have a great impact on them, at least immediately. But, bottom line, Lou, is, as we saw a minute ago, Americans say it sounds like a good idea. We want it -- Lou.</s>WATERS: Frank Newport of Princeton, New Jersey.