Quinnipiac: 60% Voters Prefer Medicare Status Quo to Subsidized Private Insurance

Quinnipiac asks registered voters whether

A) Medicare should remain as it is today, with a defined set of benefits for seniors. OR B) Medicare should be changed so that seniors who join Medicare in 2022 receive a fixed amount of money from the government each year that they can use to shop for their own private health insurance policy

The results: 60 percent say Medicare should remain as it is, while 34 percent support option B.

This is not a good poll for Republicans, but the reality, as even the president acknowledges, is that Medicare is on an unsustainable path and cannot "remain as it is today." The choice is not between the status quo and Ryan's plan. The choice is between Ryan's plan and Obama's plan to have 15 experts on a panel cut reimbursement rates, thus rationing care.

The question for Republicans is whether they can make clear that that's the choice and then convince voters that theirs is a better alternative.

As noted earlier, polling on Ryan's Medicare reform is all over the map, depending on how the question is worded.