A majority of Americans still oppose the nation’s new health care measure, three years after it became law, according to a new survey.
But a CNN/ORC International poll released Monday also indicates that more than a quarter of those who oppose the law, known by many as Obamacare, say they don’t support the measure because it doesn’t go far enough.
According to the poll, 43 percent of the public says it supports the health care law, a figure that’s mostly unchanged in CNN polling since the measure was passed in 2010 by a Congress then controlled by Democrats, and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Fifty-four percent of those questioned say they oppose the law, also relatively unchanged since 2010.
The survey indicates that 35 percent oppose the health care law because it’s too liberal, with 16 percent saying they oppose the measure because it isn’t liberal enough.
The wide partisan divide over the law remains. Nearly three quarters of Democrats say they favor the Affordable Care Act. That number drops to 16 percent among Republicans.
“Not surprisingly, the Obama coalition is most supportive of Obamacare,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “A majority of younger Americans favor the new health care law; support among other age groups falls as low as 31 percent among senior citizens. Only a third of whites support the law, compared to six in 10 non-whites. Obamacare also wins majority support in urban areas and in the Northeast, the bluest region of the country.”
The CNN poll was conducted May 17-18, right after the GOP-controlled House voted along party lines to repeal the entire law, the third time House Republicans have voted to overturn the measure over the past three years. As with the previous attempts, the bill is expected to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The survey was conducted by ORC International, with 923 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The poll’s overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
Source: CNN
