Whereas there have been many national polls gauging support for a public option, what likely is more important to individual lawmakers is the reception to such a plan in their home state or district. The electorates before whom members of Congress must stand for re-election, after all, are state or local, not national. All members of the U.S. Senate and some members of the U.S. House (from low-population states such as Alaska, Delaware, and North Dakota) represent a full statewide constituency.
The left-leaning Daily Kos website, using independent pollster Research 2000, has been surveying support in various states for the public option (as part of potential federal legislation). DK/R2K’s standard question-wording and support levels in the states surveyed are as follows:
Do you favor or oppose creating a government-administered health insurance option that anyone can purchase to compete with private insurance plans?
Kentucky… Favor 46%, Oppose 45%
Nebraska*.. Favor 39%, Oppose 47%
Nevada….. Favor 52%, Oppose 40%
*Worded “Do you favor or oppose creating a new public health insurance plan that anyone can purchase?”
