Originally Posted By: maczrool
The article I linked to specifically states that "68% of American voters have health-insurance coverage they rate good or excellent" which would mean that 68 percent of Americans have insurance and rate it as excellent. It does not say of those with insurance, it says American voters.


From the article:
Quote:
AUGUST 7, 2009

That number comes from polling conducted this past weekend of 1,000 likely voters.

Mr. Rasmussen is the founder and president of Rasmussen Reports. All polling data referred to in this article can be found at RasmussenReports.com.


From the (apparent) actual poll:
Quote:
National Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters
Conducted August 1-2, 2009

By Rasmussen Reports

1* How do you rate the healthcare you receive….excellent, good, fair or poor?

35% Excellent
39% Good
17% Fair
7% Poor
1% Not sure

2* How do you rate the U.S. health care system? Excellent, good, fair, or poor?

17% Excellent
31% Good
30% Fair
19% Poor
4% Not sure

3* Do you have health insurance?

85% Yes
14% No
2% Not sure

4* (answered only by those who have health insurance) How do you rate your own health insurance coverage?

35% Excellent
45% Good
15% Fair
4% Poor
0% Not sure

5* Are you willing to pay higher taxes so all Americans can be provided with health insurance?

28% Yes
60% No
12% Not sure

NOTE: Margin of Sampling Error, +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence


Now tell me you come to the same conclusion. The only logical conclusion is that Mr. Rasmussen is misinterpreting his own poll, or at least misspeaking.

Originally Posted By: maczrool
You can argue that the guy doesn't know what he's talking about but his polls tend to more closely reflect reality.

I just realized that I was conflating Rasmussen and Zogby. Rasmussen is definitely reputable, if slightly conservative leaning. So I take back what I said about Rasmussen's reputability. He's still misrepresenting his data in this instance, though. Unless he's referring to a different August 1-2, 2009 poll he made of 1000 likely voters about healthcare issues.
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Bitt Faulk