What happened to Americans' support for the Clinton health plan?

Within a twelve-month period public support for the Clinton plan fell from 71 percent to 43 percent. The administration lost substantial support among two politically important groups--the elderly and Democrats. This outcome was brought on by a series of key strategic and substantive misjudgments by the administration in the choices that it made in the development of its plan. These particular decisions inadvertently reinforced the public's deeply held cynicism that although health care reform was needed, the government in Washington would not do it right and would ultimately leave the middle class worse off than it was before.