President Obama and congressional Democrats are citing a jump in rates by a California health insurer as grounds for getting their national health care plan back on track, but voters are still more fearful of the federal government than private insurance companies when it comes to health care decisions.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% fear the federal government most when it comes to such decisions. Thirty-nine percent (39%) fear private insurance companies more.

These views are unchanged from early August when many congressmen went home to town hall meetings filled with voters angry about the proposed health care plan.

A new provision in the plan proposed this week by the president is “a Health Insurance Rate Authority to assist and oversee state efforts to review ‘unreasonable rate increases’ and ‘unfair practices’ in the industry,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The largest public health insurer in California has just announced rate increases up to 39%.

Forty-one percent (41% ) of voters favor the proposed health care plan, while 56% oppose it. Just 23% Strongly Favor the plan while 45% are Strongly opposed. Support for and opposition to the plan are at the same levels they’ve been at since just after Thanksgiving.

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Among those who strongly support the health care plan, 80% fear private insurance companies most when it comes to health care decisions. But 86% of those who strongly oppose the plan are most fearful of the federal government.

Male voters are more fearful of the government than female voters. Whites are twice as likely as African-Americans to fear the government most.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats have a greater fear of private insurance companies, while 77% of Republicans and 52% of voters not affiliated with either major party fear the government most when it comes to health insurance decisions. That’s partly why most Democrats favor the proposed legislation while most Republicans and unaffiliated voters are opposed.

Similarly, 62% of Mainstream voters worry most about the government, but 64% of the Political Class fear private insurers most.

From the beginning of the health care debate, one of the challenges facing reform advocates has been the fact that most Americans have insurance and are generally happy with their coverage. As Scott Rasmussen noted in a Wall Street Journal column last year, “Most of these voters approach the health care reform debate fearing that they have more to lose than to gain.”

In December, 52% of those with insurance feared that passage of the health care plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats could force them to change coverage.

Only 25% of voters agreed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last summer when she described America’s health insurance companies as “villains.”

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