HEALTH CARE REFORM'S POPULARITY GROWS....

[ProSense]

HEALTH CARE REFORM'S POPULARITY GROWS....

One of the keys to the Republican midterm strategy is hammering away at an unpopular health care reform package signed into law in March. Of course, the plan -- which includes GOP demands for a repeal of the entire law -- only works if the Affordable Care Act is, in fact, unpopular.

There's at least some evidence, however, that public attitudes are changing.

The patient is alive and kicking. A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds public support for President Barack Obama's new health care law has risen to its highest point.

The nation remains divided, with 45 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed to the president's signature domestic accomplishment.

Still, the shift in public sentiment was significant. Opposition to the overhaul increased after Congress passed it in March. And last month, supporters were outnumbered 39 percent to 46 percent. But the latest survey found the strongest backing for the health care plan since the AP-GfK poll began asking in September.

The AP found some of the largest gains among men (support jumped 10 points, to 46%) and 30-49 year-olds (support jumped 14 points to 49%). Even among self-indentified Republicans, support for the new law doubled -- from 8% to 17% -- though clearly GOP voters are a long way from liking the ACA.

Also note, despite skepticism about the law, the same poll found that the public trusts Democrats on the issue over Republicans, 51% to 38%,

It's worth emphasizing that all of the usual caveats apply. This is, after all, just one poll -- and of all the recent polling on health care reform, this AP survey is the only one that shows supporters outnumbering opponents. We'd need to see several other polls with similar results before we can start drawing conclusions about a positive trend.

That said, the AP data offers some political encouragement to Dems, and should give the GOP pause.

Still, the trend is positive.

[vaberella]

1. ~sigh~ The American people...the ever fickle bunch. Anyway, this is definitely welcome news. n/t

[zipplewrath]

2. But, but Rove says otherwise!!!

Ran across this article in the WSJ today.

Ya know, I'm a frequent critic of the President, and especially his HCR bill. But it constantly surprises me that the GOP has to reach to absurdity to find things to criticize.

"This was brought home to me when I asked the CEO of a major restaurant chain about health reforms effect on his company, which now spends $25 million a year on employee health insurance. That will jump to at least $90 million a year once the new law is phased in. It will be cheaper, he told me, for the company to dump its coverage and pay a fine—$2,000 for each full-time worker—and make sure that no part-time employee accidentally worked 31 hours and thereby incurred the fine."

Um, Karl baby. Did ya bother to ask the CEO why they were ALREADY paying for insurance? It was cheaper to not pay anything at all, and yet they were. Now, Karl, why do you think that is? Slowly Karl...

Because they had to in order to attract employees. Should I say it slower Karl? That isn't going to change and in fact it will be MORE expected now. A company that drops its coverage and just "pays the fine" will find alot of employees dropping their jobs for other ones.

I do expect companies to drop their coverage and pay the fine. These are the same companies that were going to soon drop their coverage and, well, pay NOTHING. They were and will do this because the cost of health care is climbing through the roof, and nothing is stopping it.

And Karl my man. Exactly what did you do about that in 8 years? Hmmm........

Oh ,yeah, the government was prevented from actually negotiating lower drug prices. That's right.