The Public’s New Opinion of the Health Reform Law

After days of hearing arguments both for and against Obama’s healthcare reform law, the Supreme Court is working towards a June verdict to decide the Constitutionality of the legislation. New data from a CNN poll has revealed that the current opinion of nearly three-quarters of American adults is that some or all of the provisions will be overturned. Nearly one-third of respondents said they would like to see the law overturned in its entirety. A further 43 percent said they want to see some portion of the bill’s provisions overturned while the remaining 23 percent responded that they want the law to remain in its current form.

An unexpected finding in the survey proved contradictory to many predictions that healthcare reform would play a large role in the upcoming presidential election. In fact, over three-quarters of respondents reported that the Supreme Court’s ruling would play no role in their voting behavior. The remaining 24 percent were evenly split when reporting whether they would be more or less likely to vote for President Obama.

Other data collected during the survey included:

• Half of Americans are against the law in its entirely ( a 6 point decrease from November), while 43 percent favor it (up from 38 percent in November).
• Over one-third of those who said they completely oppose the law did so because it is “too liberal,” while 10 percent said the law is not liberal enough.
• All told, more women support the bill than men.
• A slight majority (51 percent) are against the individual mandate while 47 percent are for it. More men oppose this measure than women.
• Half of respondents said that the decisions by the individual court judges will be based on their political ideologies while 46 percent believe that the verdict will be based on objective considerations.