Susan Walsh/AP
President Obama speaking to state governors at the White House on Monday.
Public opinion of the Affordable Care Act could prove to be a problem for President Obama. That's the takeaway from a new USA Today/Gallup poll released today.
While the measure enjoys some popular support among Democrats, the poll shows things are quite mixed among independents. It's also something that unites the fractured Republican electorate.
Here are the results from the USA Today/Gallup poll:
The USA Today article breaking down the poll's findings explains why these numbers should give the White House cause for concern:
The battleground states surveyed include Michigan - where Tuesday's primary has become a critical showdown between Romney and Santorum - as well as Ohio and Virginia, which vote next week on Super Tuesday. The other swing states are Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.Health care ranks near the top of a list of concerns for advocates and critics of the law. Nationwide, it trails only the economy and the deficit as being the most critical issues facing the nation, rating a bit higher than unemployment and terrorism.
Something particularly noteworthy in Gallup's findings could also explain, at least partially, why the Affordable Care Act is getting such lackluster poll numbers. A majority of Americans - even a majority of Democrats - think the bill's mandate requiring the purchase of health care is unconstitutional.
Again, the results from Gallup:
You can take a look at all the poll's findings here on Gallup's website and read all of the USA Today report here. And a reminder, the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law beginning on March 26.
The USA Today/Gallup poll has a margin of error of +/-4.0%.
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The reason people hate it, is they listen to people like Rick Santorum lie and make up outrageous shi* . People are too stupid to look up the facts. Get rid of Obama care and watch the country sink. Millions of uninsured.......Why the democrats don't go back and pull some tapes of Ronald Reagan saying how Medicare would be the downfall of the country. How it would turn the country into a communist one. It was a government take over of health care. LOL those same people who probably stood by Reagan in 1960 are the same ones loving their medicare today.
Thank you so much Celia! It is time that we as Americans speak up!!Love your comment!!
The percentage of democrats who oppose it is only because they would have preferred a single payer system. But let's not throw the baby out with the bath water!!
The only part of the Health care Bill I do not like is the part of the fine. As of right now I have medicare and Medicaid do to my disability. However my kids do not have any insurance. They do not qualify for Chips or medicaid in Texas I do not understand this. It makes no sense. I do not think it would be fair that I get a fine, because I have tryed to get private insurance for my children and do to the laws changing the insurance companies do not have child/childen only policys. It must be a family policy. If I get a family policy, that I do not need, it would cost me so much, I would not have enough money for all my household bills. There are loopholes, that have been missed and this is one of them.
The Gallup/USA Today poll is a joke, probably a subtle "Karl Rove Wedge Issue" they're trying to blow into a bonfire. People recognize the Affordable Health Care Act is problematic, but the question is can it be tweaked to improve the standards of health care in this country?
What needs to be exposed is how insurance companies have bullied hospitals and doctors into lowering the costs they charge insurers. This magnifies the inequality that exists between those with insurance and those without it.
You need to lay off that 'bud'.
If you mean the beer or the other, I quit both before you were born, youngster...
Thanks for the compliment.
Gallup/USA Today is a BS poll that is a complete bias. I've been trusting Gallup less and less over the years.
They were very accurate in tracking the 2008 Presidential election.
I'm with Celia...people really don't understand what it offer's them, and the protections that will ultimately be in place. Maybe they have not yet seen any positive effects yet because a number of provisions haven't taken effect. All people hear about is "death panels" and "it's stripping Medicare funds" and other fear mongering slogans. It saved me this year when I moved from one state to another and had to change insurance companies. Blue Cross tried to hit me up by saying they would not cover my pre-existing conditions for a year. I'm a relatively healthy 60 year old woman, but I have several minor chronic conditions, none of which are life-threatening or have put me in the hospital, but I need to see a couple of specialists once a year and use medication. My premium is 25% of my income, plus deductibes and co-pays. If I had to pay out of pocket for the 2 specialist visits, plus the maintinence medications, health care alone would cost me 50% of my income. I politely told Blue Cross that they were acting illegally and they backed down. $550/mo is a lot of money to me. My adult children have no health insurance. If anything, the Affordable Health Care Act didn't go far enough. I'm all in for a single payer system. We already have death panels...they are called insurance companies.
$550 a month would kill me in more ways than one.
In Germany, people pay 15.5% of salaried income for public health insurance.
The bottom line, during the 2008 campaign Obama opposed the mandate.
On a side note, President Obama did a very poor job in controlling the message and relating to the American people the benefits of Bob Dole's and the Heritage Foundation's vision for providing health care to all Americans.
Ugly bill, that did very little to control costs and assure adequate health care for all.
Obama opposed the mandate because he wanted a public option to keep the bloodsucking insurance companies in line.
We've got another frustrated fiction writer up late in the night...
Oh yeah, Bob Dole... He's the Viagra salesman; I remember now. I trust you're following how insurance companies are paying for E.D. remedies but the religious right made a big stink about having to cover contraceptive coverage for women...
As for the Heritage Foundation (conservative think tank is an oxymoron; same way the religious right is neither), don't you think trying to return this country to its feudal roots in Europe is a bit extreme?
You obviously didn't get the point, so let me put it in a nutshell for you, instead of a public option Obama gave us subsidized private health insurance, something every Republican should embrace.
You should lay off those IPA's.
How about I give you a lesson in the political realities of cause-and-effect?
Guys like you definitely put the ho' in ad hominem...
Go report back to your Koch brother employers and admit you brought a squirt pistol to a real gun fight.
Another Obamabot revealed. I'm a lifelong Democrat who now calls himself a radical centrists.
Great comments Celia-hope-e-change & Lovingkindness...I couldn't say any better .
Whatever the case, Obama better be able to sell it during the general election!! I don't really know what is in the law, but there better be some things that people say, "I like that and I wanna keep it" .....and it has to be that simple, not some abstract thing that may or may not be.
It would help if the public were informed what's in the Affordable Care Act.
All of the posters here should put this link on the Facebook and Twitter sites:
I post a link and it doesn't appear. Let me try again: thanksobamacareDOTorg
Could anyone please explain to me what makes so many people think that compulsory health insurance is unconstitutional? As far as I know, the US constitution is not essentially different from the constitutions of other Western countries, except for the infamous Second Amendment, of course. And if anything, the Second Amendment serves as a good reason for compulsory health insurance, because people are at higher risk of being wounded by guns.
I don't know, for some reason it seems that forcing someone to buy something, they can't afford, and what they can afford will not be of much use, seems to go beyond constitutional boundaries.
Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that it's unconstitutional. Compulsory health insurance is for your own good. Be grateful for it. Also, if health insurance is made mandatory and you can't afford it, then I assume you have the possibility to apply for financial support. A country that forces its people to buy something has to provide the means for those who aren't able to afford it. That should go without saying.
Does this mean I have to eat my porridge before or after I go to the bathroom?
What?
The problem about why this law is unpopular can be traced to the Democratic controlled congress.
Firstly they caved to the insurance companies instead of fighting them about the terrible practices they employed, and demonizing them instead of the other way around. Backing away from the public option without a real fight was a disaster, and can be laid at the feet of Max Bakus of N Dakota who used his powerful finance committee to deep six it.
Secondly they allowed Fox news(opinion) to rile up the Tea party about death panels and government takeover of the health care system instead of fighting toe to toe with them, they ran and hid on the issue.
Thirdly they didn't sell it to the people and didn't counter all the misinformation out there forcefully and they let the Republicans grab the narrative on the issue and left it to Obama to battle the issue himself.
fourthly -every state makes you buy car insurance and no one has a problem with that
The reality is that there were 32 million uninsured at the passage of this act and that alone should have been the moral message. Are we going to give them access to care or allow the insurance companies to run wild?
If it weren't for Obama's health care plan, my daughter might be dead today. She is just 21. She was kicked off of our family health care plan as soon as she turned 19. With pre existing conditions, I couldn't find any health insurance company willing to cover her. The medications she needed were so expensive we were borrowing to buy them. Then when we had to take her to the doctor for prescriptions renewal, the office visit was more than $200.00. Because our income was just about $20.00 more than allowed, she didn't qualify for any government help. We were desperate and I was so sick with worry I couldn't sleep at night. My husband as well, and I worried about his heart since he has a health problem. Then Obama Care came and my husband's employer put her back into our health care plan. Our premiums increased slightly, about $15.00 a week deducted to cover her. But the cost was minimal considering what would have happened without Obamacare. All I can say is, people need to stop listening the lies from the right and actually look at the plan. I understand that most people don't like the idea of being forced to have health care plans. But I think something can be done to fix a few of the least popular portions of the plan without throwing the whole thing out!
I thought the mandatory coverage of those with pre-existing condition provision in the Affordable Health Care Act didn't kick in until 2014? I have 3 coronary stents and no one other than public health service provider are willing to touch me.
Sorry. I didn't see your remark earlier. The Obama care rule which makes children be allowed to be covered under their parents health care until age 26 is how my daughter, and millions of other kids, are now covered by insurance. We pay her premium as well as ours. It is worth the piece of mind and the costs are at least controlled for her medications and treatments. I actually didn't realize that the pre existing conditions provision wasn't available to all. If we didn't have health care through my husband's job I see now that she would not be covered because no insurance company would take her. Hope you will be ok till 2014.
You all had better pray that the republicans do not win the election in 20 12 because if they do and Affordable Health care is dissed , then we go back to the beginning of time , to survival of the fittest and to hell with everything and every one else . From what I have been reading here, many of you are not so fittest.. I get a feeling that that includes you Mr Garcia !! It's just a feeling ??? I could be wrong??
In my angry dreams , I conjure up a Doctor implanting a human egg and Mr Santorum's sperm for fertilization, into his belly impregnating him, forcing him to carry full term and give birth. Then we could see how eager loud mouth Ricky would be to invade ladies wombs.. I gaurentee tricky Ricky wouldn't rush to be forced to experience the blessed event very often in his useless future. a Having no birth canal he could experience labor pains , ( big time ) Hey, equality being a plus in life makes for a more tolerant society.If the goose gets forced why not the gander?? I'm all for equality..