Report: Likely Voters Want Health Care Law Repealed
May 24, 2010 – Rather than becoming more receptive of recently enacted national health care law, those favoring scrapping the recent legislation are gaining strength, according to recent polling.
A large majority of likely voters polled – some 63 percent – favor repealing the legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama after receiving strictly partisan support and bipartisan opposition in Congress, according to the most recent national telephone survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports. Only slightly less than a third of those polled – 32 percent – oppose repealing the health care law. Of those favoring repeal, some 46 percent indicated the “strongly favor” overturning the health care law. Some 25 percent of those indicating support for keeping the health care law intact said they “strongly oppose” repealing it. In general, men were more skeptical than women of the health care measure.
Polling data suggests the perceived cost of implementing the national health care overhaul slated to take full effect in 2014 likely is driving a trend toward more voters favoring repeal at a time when Americans are becoming anxious over the growing national debt. An equal amount – 63 percent – of likely voters indicated the health care likely would increase the federal government’s deficit, and 55 percent indicated the law won’t be good for the country. Only 33 percent of those polled said the law will have a positive impact on the nation, and only 12 percent said they thought the health care law would lower the federal deficit.
Previous studies indicated between 54 percent and 58 percent of likely voters polled favor repealing the health care law but topped the 60 percent mark for the first time during the most recent polling cycle. Likewise, the percentage of people who say the health care law will be good for the nation has declined 6 percentage points from last week’s poll, according to Rasmussen Reports.
The outlook for the quality of health care provided likewise is gloomy. Some 55 percent of those polled said the new law will harm rather than help the nation’s health-care delivery system. Another 20 percent said it will improve the health care system, and 18 percent indicated there likely would be no significant impact. Attitudes toward the cost of health care were nearly identical with 55 percent saying the health care overhaul will drive up costs versus 18 percent saying costs will go down and 16 percent saying there will be no significant impact.
Researchers from the Pulse Opinion Research firm conducted the national telephone survey on May 22 and May 23 and queried 1,000 “likely voters” regarding their attitudes toward the health care law on behalf of Rasmussen Reports.