Health reform losing popularity

According to a recent Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, fifty-eight percent of U.S. voters favor repeal of the Affordable Care Act, including forty-six percent who "strongly favor" repeal. Thirty-six percent of those responding were opposed to repeal.

And, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll shows that health care reform has lost some popular support. Only forty-three percent of Americans responding to the poll viewed the law favorably in August, which is down from fifty percent in July, and forty-five percent held unfavorable views.

It seems to be the individual mandate that's causing the trouble, since seventy percent of those surveyed by Kaiser were not in favor of the requirement that they either buy health insurance or pay a penalty. On the other hand, approximately seventy-five percent of those surveyed support helping low- and moderate-income Americans to buy coverage via subsidies.

Both Rasmussen and Kaiser indicate that attitudes toward the health care reform law seem to run along party lines. Rasmussen points out that repeal was favored by eighty-six percent of Republicans and fifty-seven percent of voters not affiliated with either party, while fifty-nine percent of Democrats were opposed to repeal.

According to Kaiser, sixty-eight percent of Democrats that were polled supported health care reform while seventy-seven percent of Republicans opposed it.

For a comprehensive analysis of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and additional information on health reform and other developments in employee benefits, just click here.



.