Poll Results Show Majority of People Think HC Reform Did not Go Far Enough

With the earliest provisions of the ACA kicking in last week I thought it was interesting to see how the law is being perceived by the public. So here are some results:

The Associated Press: As Republicans seek to use the health law as a major talking point to help them win more seats in Congress, a "new AP poll finds that Americans who think the law should have done more outnumber those who think the government should stay out of health care by 2-to-1." The poll found four in 10 adults think the law didn't go far enough to change the system "regardless of whether they support the law, oppose it or remain neutral. On the other side, about one in five say they oppose the law because they think the federal government should not be involved in health care at all." The AP poll was conducted by Stanford University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has a margin of sampling error 3.9 percentage points (Alonso-Zaldivar and Agiesta, 9/26).

USA Today: In the meantime, another poll -- this from the Kaiser Family Foundation -- has found that the health law "regained support among more Americans this month," but opponents are more likely to vote in November. (KHN is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.) "As some initial provisions took effect six months after its enactment, the law was favored by 49% to 40% in the [KFF] monthly tracking poll. That margin shrunk to 46%-45% among likely voters." Democrats remain the more trusted party on health care and Medicare, according to the poll, and four in 10 Republicans said they were more likely to vote because of the law, compared with three in 10 Democrats. "Seniors continued to oppose the law, 49% to 38%, and to view the parties equally on health care issues" (Wolf, 9/27).

NPR's Shots Blog: "Perhaps it's not so surprising that Americans would be a little happier about overhaul in the same month that some of the first changes, such as an end to lifetime limits on coverage, start to kick in. But they're still not a majority. ... About one-quarter of Americans -- 26 percent -- believe health overhaul should be repealed, the [Kaiser] poll finds. And the thing that most people seem to agree on is that they really don't understand what overhaul is all about. Some 53 percent said they feel that way, up 8 percentage points from August" (Hensley, 9/27).

Roll Call: Democrats, however, are hoping for a bump in the law's popularity ahead of the midterm elections after several consumer-friendly provisions took effect last week. "House Democrats said they don't know whether it was the result of luck or strategic planning that widely supported consumer protections in the health care bill are kicking in as lawmakers enter the final stretch of campaigning. ... Couple these changes with a renewed push by the Obama administration and outside advocacy groups, and voila: Many Democrats are ready to publicly embrace an issue they largely ceded to Republicans and their accusations of a costly, big-government takeover." Democrats are using the provisions to paint the differences between themselves and Republicans (Bendery, 9/27).