I also believe insurance is a personal responsibility. However, the fact that I may see it that way doesn’t make it affordable. I daresay that many of the 40+ million people who don;pt have insurance would also see it as a personal responsibility…but they can’t afford it!
The issue here is how to make some form of decent health insurance affordable and accessible to millions. And, as long as we’re talking personal responsibility, I think those who can afford it should buy it, so that the rest of us don’t have to pick up their tab when they suddenly need health care, but decided to spend the money on something more fun.

Michele,
Did you read the entire Gallup article or just the headline? The author is not even sure what the results means.
“have the primary responsibility for ensuring that they have health insurance”
Primary is the key word in the question.
“The differing results to questions asking about government responsibility for health insurance may not be contradictory. A reasonable hypothesis could be that Americans generally believe people should take responsibility for their own healthcare coverage, while at the same time believing the government should provide a safety net for those who need it.
…
Bottom Line
An important principle behind the current push for healthcare reform is that healthcare is a basic right that the government ought to guarantee for all Americans. Not only are the details of achieving universal coverage proving to be highly controversial, but it is unclear how strongly Americans support the premise.
Americans tend to agree with the government’s taking responsibility for guaranteeing healthcare coverage when asked in “yes or no” terms. However, they are more libertarian on the issue when asked whether the government or individual citizens should be primarily responsible for ensuring that coverage.
…
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.”

The Gallup Poll also indicates that the Republican lies and scare tactics have been successful for some individuals:
“Do you think the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans, or isn’t this the responsibility of the federal government?”
51% of Americans say it is the government’s responsibility; 40% disagree.
January 2009
64% of Americans say it is the government’s responsibility; 30% disagree.

78% of Democrats willing to pay higher taxes for improved health care:
63% Americans willing to fund healthcare reform: poll
Sep 30, 2009
“Most Americans would pay higher taxes to fund healthcare reforms that provide the best quality of care. …
The telephone survey of 3,003 U.S. adults conducted by Thomson Reuters found 63 percent willing to pay for healthcare reform, though most also said they are happy with their own doctors, insurance plans and out-of-pocket costs.”
While people were skeptical about the government’s ability to deliver:
The survey showed that 76 percent of those polled believe Americans deserve the best healthcare. But only 43 percent said they actually receive it.
Readiness to pay for effective reform crossed party lines, with 78 percent of Democrats willing to accept higher taxes, as well as 64 percent of independents and 48 percent of Republicans.

I think health insurance is a personal responsibility. But it’s pretty hard to fulfill when the insurance companies hold all the cards, prices are rising like crazy, insurance co. profits are obscene, insurance companies can and do revoke people’s coverage for the pettiest of reasons when they get sick, and people with pre-existing conditions are excluded or simply priced out of the market.
Sure, it’s a personal responsibility. But like the majority of the American public, I want a public option so that more people will find it actually possible to fulfill that responsibility. And I want some real compassion for the truly poor who may need help even with the public option.

“focused more on incentives and less on mandates”
republicans looking for more handouts…
john and robert hit the nail on the head. if there’s a mandate, it will not matter to those who are financially able to be responsibly insured. the only complainers here are those who are irresponsible and spend their money on material goodies instead and let us foot the bill when they find they can’t afford their trip to the emergency room.

I think it is the individual responsibility not the governments, the democrates just love to spend send and spend

No matter how much I exercise, retain a good weight, maintain excellent health practices, it won’t overcome the current insurance gatekeepers’ refusal to grant me the ability to have health coverage.
That won’t change under anything Republicans have suggested or proposed. Our current system does not work, no matter how many different ways you try to claim it does. It’s way past time for America to join the civilized countries of this world and work for the benefit of all Americans, rather than rich insurance executives only on this matter.

Just ran across this today.
Modern Version of the Ant and the Grasshopper
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’
Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant ’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group curse God for the grasshopper’s sake.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC & NBSP drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

As a Christian I think that Health care is a right for all and should not be tied to economic status at all. Many people have plenty of “personal responsibility” yet cannot get health care. I am rather surprised a website like this does not recognize it as a righjt for all. Then again I have always found the ones who speak loudest about their faith to have little of it.

c141nav, that’s a great analogy (from a right-winger’s point of view) if you want to lower the level of humanity to that of insects. and for a right-wing hit-piece deliverable via email and the web, it strikes just about every note perfectly!
notable persons/organizations/ideologies for you to hate – oprah, pelosi, reid, wright, acorn, mainstream media, compassion, america, equality in the workplace (i.e. non-discrimination by gender, race, age, etc.), and taxes.
not a bad piece of total fictitious crap, but it forgets to name obama explicitly and it forgets to work in your vile hate of the courts, the aclu and gays.
it sounds like a great fable to tell my kids when i want to teach them the rewards of conservative greed:
see, kids, what happens to the greedy ant? the ant didn’t bother to give to the poor, he didn’t concern himself with their plight. he ignored the corporate greed and actually defended it because in his mind, greed was a good thing – it’s the natural reward of an unhindered capitalist society. instead he vilified these others as lesser creatures, being “green” and “lazy” and “drug addicts.” that makes the ant feel better about his greed. many of the ants in his colony had the same attitude and they formed a party and called themselves “conservatives.” through ant-like shenanigans, their savior, george w bug, was elected as bug-king of the farm. the bug-king rewarded the rich, greedy ants by cutting their taxes that were desperately needed to pay for the great ant war against the muslim “green” bugs on the neighboring farm and to pay for the unethical “free-market” activities of certain corporations (bank bailouts) and to care for the elderly bugs and those who fell on hard times. year after year, the ants refused to raise a minimum level of compensation for the other bugs hard work, thereby consolidating even more of the profits to the minority elite. the ants clung to their money and material things and, believing that they were the master race of bugs, they continued to ignore the other races and classes of bugs until a crisis came upon the farm. sadly, a global economic crisis devastated hard working middle-class and lower-class bugs. many bugs lost their jobs and their savings ran out. now their ant-king heir, john mc-ant, lost his bid for the throne because the rest of the bugs saw the injustice borne upon the backs of the majority to the benefit of the elite minority. if only those greedy conservative ants had seen the destruction that their personal greed and corporate corruption was doing to their society, the new bug government would not have had to step in to correct the injustices and save the livelihood of the poorer, less fortunate of the bugs. the policies of greed and corruption had failed – they could not sustain the bug population and they were very devastating to the farm’s economy. of course now the hardhearted ants are angry and bitter because they don’t want to let loose of their greed. they don’t like being told that a successful civil farm would be driven more by compassion for other bugs.

Even though Obama is not supporting single payer national health insurance, he does want to reduce cost, guarantee choice and ensure quality care for all. There are affordable plans, the thing is you need to research and find what is good for you.