Friday, December 17, 2010

Poll: Obamacare Opposition Remains High

The number of American voters who like the new health care law remains small -- most want it repealed or changed, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.

A 16 percent minority of voters like the new health care law and think it should be implemented as is.

Most voters, though, don’t like it. Over half would either repeal the law entirely (27 percent) or repeal parts of the new law (32 percent). Some 15 percent would go the other direction and expand the law.

Current views are unchanged from earlier polling. In mid-October, 17 percent said they would leave the law as it is, 27 percent said repeal it altogether, another 27 percent said repeal parts of the law and 19 percent said they would like lawmakers to expand it.

Democrats are most likely to support the law as it currently stands (28 percent) or want lawmakers to expand it (26 percent). Even so, 29 percent of Democrats want parts of the law repealed, and 4 percent say repeal it entirely.

Almost all Republicans think the law should be repealed -- either completely (48 percent) or at least in part (32 percent). Seven percent say expand it and 9 percent say leave it as is.

For independents, 30 percent think Congress should repeal it entirely, 37 percent say repeal parts of the law, 12 percent say it should be expanded and 11 percent would keep it in its current form.

Meanwhile, the new poll found voters agree with substance of the Virginia federal judge’s ruling on Monday that the health care bill goes too far by requiring all Americans buy health insurance.

While 28 percent think the government can force Americans who can afford it to have health insurance, most voters -- 69 percent -- disagree.

Large majorities of Republicans (85 percent) and independents (75 percent) think the government cannot require Americans to have health insurance.

Among Democrats, views are split: 45 percent think the government can mandate insurance, while 50 percent say it can’t.

The national telephone poll was conducted for Fox News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 randomly chosen registered voters from December 15 to December 16. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for the total sample.

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