Statements by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in a recent article in USA Today are aimed at assuring Americans that their access to quality care will be even greater under the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.

But new national surveying by Rasmussen Reports finds that voters are far from assured by the comments of the two top House Democratic leaders.

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters nationwide think Pelosi and Hoyer are wrong when they say the passage of health care reform will mean more affordable coverage for all Americans. But 36% share the Democratic Congressional leaders’ view and believe health care will become more affordable if the plan passes. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided.

Just 27% of all voters agree with the senior House Democrats that if the health care reform being considered by Congress is passed, it will mean more patient choice. Forty-nine percent (49%) disagree and do not believe more patient choice is likely, and 24% are not sure.

Among voters who have health insurance, the majority (52%) says the plan, if passed, will not mean more patient choice, while 25% say it will. Full demographic crosstabs are available for Premium Members.

Voters by a three-to-one margin say cost is a bigger health care problem facing the nation than the lack of universal health insurance coverage.

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The plurality (45%) of voters nationwide say the congressional leaders are right when they say every American who likes his or her current insurance plan will be able to keep it if the health care plan becomes law. Thirty-six percent (36%) do not believe that’s true. Nearly-one-out-of-five voters (19%) aren’t sure.

Forty-three percent (43%) of already-insured voters say they’ll be able to keep their current plans if the health reform plan passes, but 37% don’t think that’s true.

Most voters (54%) now say no health care reform legislation this year would be better than passage of the bill currently working its way through Congress. This does not mean that most voters are opposed to health care reform, but it does highlight the level of concern about the specifics now being discussed in Washington.

Republicans are far less likely to believe the comments by Pelosi and Hoyer than Democrats are. On the question of cost, 59% of Democratic voters say passage of the plan will make coverage more affordable for all Americans, although 63% of Republicans and 54% of unaffiliateds think otherwise.

As for the protesters at congressional town hall meetings, 49% of voters say they are genuinely expressing the views of their neighbors, but 37% say they’ve been put up to it by special interest groups and lobbyists

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