Health Care Reform
40% Support Health Care Plan, 56% Oppose It
Monday, December 14, 2009 Email to a Friend ShareThis.Advertisement
Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition found - reached three times before - in six months of polling.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 40% of voters favor the health care plan.
Perhaps more significantly, 46% now Strongly Oppose the plan, compared to 19% who Strongly Favor it.
Overall support for the health care plan fell to 38%, its lowest point ever, just before Thanksgiving. This is the fourth straight week with support at 41% or less. With the exception of a few days following nationally televised presidential appeals for the legislation, the number of voters opposed to the plan has always exceeded the number who favor it.
“The most significant detail in the data is that 63% of senior citizens oppose the plan, including 52% who strongly oppose it,” says Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. “Seniors are significant in this debate both because they use the health care system more than anyone else and because they vote more than younger voters.”
Rasmussen Reports is continuing to track public opinion on the health care plan on a weekly basis, with updated findings released each Monday morning.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
Democrats, whose legislators control both the House and Senate, continue to be the big supporters of the health care plan. Seventy-one percent (71%) of those in the president’s party favor it. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans and 69% of voters not affiliated with either party oppose the plan.
But again the emotion is on the side of the opponents: Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Democrats strongly support the plan, but 74% of GOP voters and 57% of unaffiliateds strongly oppose it.
Democrats consistently have rated health care reform as the most important of the priorities listed by the president early in his term. Republicans and unaffiliateds say cutting the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term is the president's highest priority.
Voters appear to becoming more skeptical about the plan’s chances for passage this year. Forty-eight percent (48%) still say it’s at least somewhat likely the plan will become law this year, with 13% who say it’s very likely. But 41% think that’s unlikely, including 28% who say it’s not very likely and 13% who feel it’s not at all likely to happen.
Only 21% of voters say the quality of health care in the country will get better if the plan passes. Fifty-four percent (54%) say quality will get worse, while 18% expect it to stay about the same.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) say health care costs will go up if the plan passes. Seventeen percent (17%) say costs will go down, as the authors of the plan contend. Twenty percent (20%) say health care costs will remain about the same if the legislation becomes law.
Obama was elected president in November 2008 in part because of his ability to carry traditionally Republican states like Virginia. But 54% of Virginia voters now oppose the president’s health care plan.
The congressional mid-term elections are still nearly a year away, but the health care bill seems to be taking an early toll on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s chances for reelection. The Nevada Democrat, one of the leading supporters of the health care plan, was reelected in 2004 with 61% of the vote, but now he trails three potential GOP challengers in a state when opposition to the plan is stronger than in other parts of the country.
Although most Americans oppose the health care legislation working its way through Congress, 42% of voters say the federal government should be addressing health care reform. Twenty-three percent (23%) prefer to see reforms at the state government level, while 17% want both the state and federal government to get into the act.
Still, 47% trust the private sector more than government to keep health care costs down and the quality of care up. Two-thirds (66%) say an increase in free market competition will do more than government regulation to reduce health care costs.
Forty-seven percent (47%) also believe that restricting jury awards for medical malpractice lawsuits will significantly reduce the cost of health care in the United States, but the plan working its way through Congress does not include limits on such lawsuits.
Differences like these help explain the sizable opposition to the health care plan. Plus 71% of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That’s up five points from September. The overall figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. |
