New Poll Shows Excise Tax Is Politically Unpopular, Likely To Hurt Re-election Prospects For Legislators

A recent poll released today provided the first comprehensive look at the political popularity of the excise tax on higher-cost health plans, and the results should raise grave political concerns for the tax's supporters. The poll, which concentrated on battleground electoral states, showed that legislators who voted for the tax could face voters' wrath in 2010. The pollsters found that the excise tax was extremely unpopular, while voters overall favored the idea of taxing high-income earners.

Pollsters John Anzalone and Matt Hogan presented their findings today on a conference call with reporters. "“We’ve never seen numbers like this," said Anzalone. "63% say they’re less likely to vote for a member of Congress who supports taxing insurance benefits, while only 22% say they're more likely.”

The poll's results strongly suggest that Senators and Representatives who vote for the excise tax could face voters' wrath in 2010. The weakest level of opposition to the tax in any state was 60%. Overall, voters supported a tax on the wealthy instead by 54%-42%.

Key poll findings included:

• "Voters across all five regions and 2010 frontline Senate states are strongly opposed to taxing high-cost health insurance plans as a way to help fund health insurance reform."
• "Overall, over 70% of voters oppose it, while at least 60% of voters in each region are opposed."
• "Voters are less likely to re-elect their member of Congress or President Obama by margins of 41 points (63% less likely to 22% more likely) and 38 points (61% to 23%), respectively, if they support an excise tax."
• "Across each region, opposition to taxing high-cost insurance plans is even higher among Independents, with 74% of these voters overall opposed to such a tax."
• "Voters clearly prefer to fund health insurance reform by raising taxes on the wealthy than by taxing high-cost plans, as they support taxing households making over a million a year (and individuals making over half a million a year), by a 12-point margin (54% to 42%). This was supported by a majority of voters in seven of the ten states surveyed, and by 49% in the remaining three."

We've presented compelling new evidence that the excise tax will be unfair in its impact on Americans with employer-based health insurance, as well as compelling arguments that it will fail to meet its intended policy goal of eliminating unnecessary or excessive medical treatment. Now there is equally compelling evidence that the idea is politically unwise and could damage the re-election prospects of Senators and Representatives who vote for it.