American Pagans Want to Change Health Care Legislation to Do More

In January, the Associated Press conducted a health care law poll and spoke to 1001 Americans by telephone. For more information about the poll you can read the previous Staff of Asclepius post. www.patheos.com/community/paganswithdisabilities/2011/01/25/associated-press-january-2011-american-health-care-poll/

Of the 1001 participants Religious affiliation:
Protestant 25%
Catholic 25%
Mormon 1%
Jewish 1%
Muslim 1%
Other 26%
No religious denomination 19%

Of the “Other” religion 87% were Christian and 13% were not.

To find out what American Pagans thought of current Health Care Law I conducted a poll from January 25 – February 19. It asked the same core questions as the original AP poll. Thanks to everyone who participated and to those who shared information about the poll.

Image: Various NeoPagan religious symbols. Compilation image by Niusereset at Wikimedia Commons CC license.

There were 217 respondents to the American Pagan version. Very close to the 224 people in the AP poll who were “No religious denomination” or “other not Christian”. Of course not all of those 224 people were Pagan.

Participants were asked “What is your current religious tradition? (Such as Pagan, Neo-Pagan, Druid, Wiccan, Hereditary, Ceremonial etc.)”. As expected, there was a large variety of answers. The majority of respondents answered Pagan and then clarified that they leaned toward or considered themselves to be, for example, Reclaiming, Buddhist, or Greco-Roman Pantheon. There were also responses from Heathens, Reconstructionists from varied traditions, Animists, Wiccans and Witches who were not Wiccan and many more. In the weeks to come, I hope to post a more detailed summary of the participants different paths and how they responded.

A Wiccan participant commented on the survey in general. “It is impossible to answer this poll in a way that will not be misconstrued since it does not ask about single payer which I favor strongly so I only favor the other stuff mildly.”

In general, do you support, oppose or neither support nor oppose the health care reforms that were passed by Congress in March?

support fully 27.3% 59
support somewhat 53.7% 116
oppose fully 5.6% 12
oppose somewhat 6.0% 13
neither support or oppose 7.4% 16
1 skipped

What would you prefer Congress do with the new health care law?

Leave it as is. 14.0% 30
Change it so that it changes health care MORE. 74.3% 159
Change it so that it changes health care LESS. 4.2% 9
Repeal it completely. 7.5% 16
3 skipped

What do you think about a law that would require every American to have health insurance, or pay money to the government as a penalty if they do not, unless the person is very poor?

Favor strongly 22.2% 48
Favor Somewhat 31.5% 68
Oppose strongly 31.5% 68
Oppose somewhat 14.8% 32
1 skipped

What do you think about a law requiring most medium-size and large companies to offer health insurance to their employees or pay money to the government as a penalty if they don’t?

Favor strongly 59.3% 127
Favor somewhat 29.0% 62
Oppose strongly 6.5% 14
Oppose somewhat 5.1% 11
3 skipped

What do you think about a law requiring insurance companies to sell health insurance to a person who is currently sick or has had a serious illness in the past, which would probably cause most Americans to pay more for health insurance?

Favor strongly 58.3% 126
Favor somewhat 32.9% 71
Oppose strongly 2.8% 6
Oppose somewhat 6.0% 13
1 skipped

What do you think about a law saying that an insurance company cannot stop selling health insurance to one of their customers if that person gets a serious illness?

Favor strongly 96.7% 208
Favor somewhat 1.9% 4
Oppose strongly 1.4% 3
Oppose somewhat 0.0% 0
skipped 2