When it comes to paying for health overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: tax the rich.

That finding from a new Associated Press poll will be welcome news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their sweeping remake of the United States medical system, which passed earlier this month and would extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

The poll found participants sour on other ways of paying for the health overhaul that is being considered in Congress, including taxing insurers on high-value coverage packages, derided by President Barack Obama and Democrats as "Cadillac plans."

That approach is being weighed in the Senate. It is one of the few proposals in any congressional legislation that analysts say would help reduce the nation's health expenditures, but it has come under fire from organised labour, and has little support in the House.

Levying new taxes

Lawmakers also are looking at levying new taxes on insurance companies, drug companies and medical device makers. But the only approach that got majority support in the AP poll was a tax on upper-income Americans.

The House bill would impose a 5.4 per cent income tax surcharge on individuals making more than US$500,000 a year, and households making more than US$1 million.

The poll tested views on an even more punitive taxation scheme that was under consideration earlier, when the tax would have hit people making more than US$250,000 a year.

Even at that level, the poll showed majority support, with 57 per cent in favour and 36 per cent opposed.

"You know, I mean, why not? If they have that much money, it should be taxed," said Mary Pat Rondthaler, 60, of Menlo Park, California. "It isn't the same way that the guy making US$21,000 is."

Not everyone agreed.

"They earn their money. And they shouldn't have to pay for somebody else. It doesn't seem fair," said Emerson Wilkins, 62, of Powder Springs, Georgia.

The latest survey was conducted by Stanford University with the non-partisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Split on Congress' plans

Overall, the poll found the public split on Congress' health care plans. In response to some questions, participants said the current system needed to be changed, but they also voiced concerns about the potential impact on their own pocketbooks, preferring to push any new costs onto wealthier Americans.

For example, 77 per cent said the cost of health care in the United States was higher than it should be, and 74 per cent favoured the broad goal of reducing the amount of money paid by patients and their insurers.

But 49 per cent said any changes made by the government probably would cause them to pay more for health care, 32 per cent said it wouldn't change what they pay, and just 12 per cent said they would end up paying less.

With lawmakers searching for new revenue sources to pay for their overhaul legislation, upper-income taxes may be increasingly gaining favour.

Legislation passed by Senate committees did not go that route, but now majority leader Harry Reid, who has a free hand in merging two committee-passed bills, is considering raising the payroll tax that goes to Medicare on income above US$250,000 a year, officials told The Associated Press last week.

Current law sets the tax at 1.45 per cent of income, an amount matched by employers.

The Senate Finance Committee bill would tax health insurance plans costing more than US$8,000 annually for individuals and US$21,000 for families, although those numbers could rise.

Too much profit

Other payment methods being contemplated on Capitol Hill also met with disapproval. Participants in the poll didn't support new taxes on medical device makers, drug companies or even insurers - even though they said in response to different questions that drug companies and insurance companies made too much money.

Some 72 per cent of people polled said insurance companies made too much profit, compared with 23 per cent who said they made about the right amount of profit.

And 74 percent said drug companies made too much profit, versus 21 percent who said they made about the right amount of profit.

The payment approach that met with least approval, by far, in the poll was borrowing the money and increasing the federal debt, something Obama has repeatedly vowed not to do. Just six per cent of people polled said they could support that approach, while 88 per cent opposed it.

The poll was based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,502 adults from October 29 to November 8. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

- AP