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How can a health care implementation survey in NE be positive?

This is an update regarding the request for action summarized in our article: “YOU Can Do Something About That Health Care Law”.

One of GiN’s members, Don, heard a news report on KLIN during the noon hour.  Senator Nordquist reported that, of the approximately 500 responses to date, most have been positive.

As we have been saying repeatedly, Senator Nordquist is able to garner media attention seemingly at will. We predicted he would be touting the results of his survey in an effort to push for the implementation of the health care law in the state. Today’s report on KLIN simply exhibits that is precisely the case. We should consider this report a glimpse of what we can expect when Nordquist makes a very flashy public display of his complete findings.

We have no other choice but to accept the results reported by Nordquist as accurate for reasons we have elaborated on below. That leads us to ask a few questions:

How many people opposed to the law have actually taken the time to fill out Nordquist’s survey? The amount of traffic we’ve seen on the GiN site directly related to the action has been high. That SHOULD mean only one thing. We have easily received a number of unique visits that would make the majority of the responses he has received negative, presuming one thing is true:

Nebraskans are indeed negative about implementing the law.

Since Nordquist has reported a majority of positive responses, we must now ask:

ARE Nebraskans in support of the implementation of the health care law? We find this hard to believe – in order for this to be true, there would have had to have been a huge shift in public sentiment within the state in a matter of months.

If Nebraskans are not positive on the topic, then…

Why are people not visiting the site and letting Senator Nordquist know they are opposed? We have tried to explain in some detail why believe this is important. Hopefully the KLIN report will bear out what we have said to date, at least about Nordquist’s ability to get media coverage.

If you are leery of filling out the Senator’s survey, understand the only required fields on the form are name and city. Further, at some point, don’t we have to take a stand?

If you were concerned the information will be misconstrued and didn’t want to add to a quoted number of visits, this fear should be allayed by the fact that others are receiving the results as they come in (see below).

Have YOU filled out Nordquist’s survey letting him know you don’t want health care?

Have you taken the time to share the information with others and requested they take part? (There is a printable flyer available to print and share – click HERE to download directly OR click HERE to view before downloading.)

We must accept the report from Senator Nordquist as accurate regarding the types of responses he has received because we have been given information both directly from him, by way of a response to Linda’s comments on the survey, and through another source confirming¹ how the results are being collected.  Further, we have confirmed that the manner in which Nordquist’s similar effort associated with the state budget in 2009 was conducted is consistent in this regard.

Here is Senator Nordquist’s response to Linda in full:

Linda,
Thanks for writing in on YourHealthCarePriorities.com.  I setup YourHealthCarePriorities.com because I thought that the public wasn’t being heard.

I guarantee that the results of YourHealthCarePriorities.com will be made public – every submission.  However, I feel that I must block names, phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses to protect the privacy of those that responded.  I did the same last year with the results of NebraskaBudget.com.  The press, the Governor, fellow senators, and the public were able to see all the results online.

When I launched this site, I asked every senator and the Governor if they wanted to receive the responses as they are submitted.  I asked because, in the past, some senators got mad at me. They said, “There are too many emails coming in.”  Currently, only the Governor, Senator Heath Mello, Senator Kathy Campbell, and Senator Tony Fulton said they wanted to see the results as they come in.  These people see every single result, including every name, address, phone, email, comments, ect.  They see exactly what I see.

Thanks again for making your voice heard, and feel free to contact me at any time.

Sincerely,

Senator Jeremy Nordquist
District 7

We are pleased that the Senator’s setup allows for independent confirmation of the results.

Note that while we are pleased the effort is being conducted in this manner, that does not alleviate a number of concerns previously stated about it.

That means the number of responses and their contents ARE UP TO ALL OF US. If you want to ensure that Nordquist will have to report that Nebraskans are negative on health care implementation, then WE ALL need to make sure we fill out the survey, let others know, and encourage as many people as possible to do the same.

We can ultimately confirm with Senator Fulton the actual results received, since he is clearly monitoring them as they come in.

IMPORTANT: It’s clear the audience to which Nordquist’s site has been marketed is generally favorable to the implementation of the law. While we do not have demographic numbers available regarding the readership of the Lincoln Journal Star, Omaha World Herald, or Omaha television stations, I do not believe it is a huge assumption to state that it is likely not made up of a large number of Constitutional, limited government types. Subscription rates and viewership totals for local tv news are down across the board since the advent of widespread internet usage and because people who are opposed to a liberal, big-government agenda find these forms of media too often leaning in a direction they find frustrating.

We have information that confirms, outside of the traditional forms of media (newspaper, tv, radio), Nordquist’s site has been marketed to groups like labor unions (see  footnote 1, below). This is likely meant to serve two purposes; solicit responses from a demographic which would clearly be in support of the law’s implementation, generally to appeal to that base of support, and to raise funds.

Again: Have YOU filled out the survey and encouraged others to do so?

If you’re looking for some example comments, I’ve included some below, starting with my own:

My priority for health care is to get the government out of it and maintain my freedoms to choose whether or not I have health insurance coverage at all, and if so, what kind of coverage. Further, I want to maintain freedom to go to any doctor I wish and between the two of us, choose what kinds of treatments I need.

I am well aware of your agenda, Senator Nordquist, including that you have been supportive of “the public option”. Your agenda for implementing the health care law in Nebraska is neither in step with the people of Nebraska, nor in conformance with the US Constitution. The federal government does not have the Constitutional authority to force individuals to purchase anything.

Rather than pushing for implementation in the state, you should be working with your fellow legislators to protect Nebraskans from this law.

Since you serve as a board member for One World Health clinic, you should not be involved in any legislative matters in Nebraska that involve Medicaid. It is very inappropriate for you to be advocating for government action that stands to increase funding of the Medicaid program.

You simply have too many conflicts of interest and therefore, your motivations are questionable.

Do the right thing and disband this website, report the findings to date publicly, in full, and in future, restrain your urge to impose the health care on the people of Nebraska against their will.

Some other statements submitted by GiN visitors and members:

Kirk:

“Please repeal this law. I want no part of the government telling me or anyone else what they can and can’t do, with their healthcare. There are many other ways with the free market system (provided the government gets out of the insurance regulating) that would be of much better value, quality, and thrift than the government has ever dreamed of being able to do.”

Don:

My #1 priority is to have our state senators understand that a majority of Nebraskans do not want this law implemented in Nebraska. Our state senators need to fully support Jon Bruning and the other states that are attempting to have this egregious unconstitutional law repealed before it adds further to the entitlement spending by the federal government that is bankrupting this nation.

Sen. Nordquist, if you had any integrity as a Nebraska state senator truly representing his constituents, you would be promoting a website asking Nebraskans for their comments on why we believe Obamacare should be repealed, and not promoting a website on how to implement this train wreck of a bill.

When the time comes, I ask that you fully disclose the raw data of the results of your survey – not just a “summary” report. I am sure you will be finding out from this survey, that a majority of Nebraskans do not want any part of this legislation coming into this state.

Individual liberty and self-governance (not utopian schemes of social justice – i.e., Obamacare) are what the American experiment is all about!

PRINTABLE FLYER – click anywhere on the image to download, print, and share:

Action flyer to print and share – click to download

Cartoon Graphic courtesy of Marktoon.

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