Tuesday, April 24, 2012

70% Still Oppose Obamacare's Individual Mandate

By Susan Duclos


Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, April 2012, finds that seven in ten Americans are opposed the individual mandate that is part of the Affordable Care Act better known as Obamacare.

 Due to the attention the recent Supreme Court hearings on the individual mandate's constitutionality or lack of, the number of Americans aware the individual mandate is part of Obamacare, has risen by 10 percent.

 Overall, 51 percent of Americans believe the Supreme Court should rule the individual mandate unconstitutional.

Reports,  Studies  and Toplines Icon Findings (.pdf)
Reports,  Studies  and Toplines Icon Chartpack (.pdf)
Reports,  Studies  and Toplines Icon Toplines (.pdf)


Campaign 2012:

 Democrats are the only people in America who will be upset if the Supreme Court overturns Obamacare. Eighty-one percent of Democrats told Kaiser they would be angry or disappointed if the Court overturns Obama's health law. Eighty-three percent of Republicans say they would be enthusiastic or satisfied if the Court threw out the law, as would 52 percent of independents.

Opinions across the country have not changed significantly in the last two years. Obamacare remained unpopular as a whole and the individual mandate extremely unpopular.

Good news for the Supreme Court was found in the Kaiser poll as half the public reportedly having followed news about the Court challenge at least fairly closely in April, up from 37 percent last March, which resulted in the proportion of the public expressing a high degree of confidence in the Supreme Court rose by 8 percent in the last month.