Poll: Support for Health Care Reforms Increases

By: Stephanie Condon
Topics: Health Care ,; Polling ,; Domestic Issues

CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.

Public support for President Obama's health care reforms has increased since they were signed into law in March, a new CBS News poll shows - 43 percent of Americans now support the measures, up from 32 percent.

However, more Americans - 47 percent - still disapprove of the new laws, according to the poll, conducted May 20 - 24. That's down from March, when 53 percent disapproved of the changes.

Approval of the bill has risen among Democrats, from 52 percent to 72 percent, as well as among independents, from 27 percent to 39 percent. Support among Republicans has stayed about the same at 14 percent.

The administration has tried to put some of the reforms into action quickly since the legislation was signed into law, so Americans would notice their impact.

Yet while support has generally gone up, there has been no change in how people expect health care reform will affect them personally. By more than two to one, Americans think it will hurt (36 percent) rather than help them (16 percent). Four in 10 expect it to have no effect.

More from the poll:

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Poll: Most Americans Still Unfamiliar with Elena Kagan
Poll: Most Still Support Arizona Immigration Law
Poll: Public Opinion of Democratic Party at All-Time Low
Read the Complete Poll

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1054 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 20-24, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

Stephanie Condon
Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by psgoodkin June 8, 2010 10:55 AM EDT: The majority of the American people DON'T want this health care bill, but they are going to keep on pushing it down our throats. Hopefully the up coming elections will show them who they work for. Can you imagine going into your boss and telling him/her that you are going to do things your way and not the way the boss wants it. How long do you think you would have your job??? We need term limits for everyone who we vote in to represent us. We can also save money be offering them health care while they are in office and only contribute to their retirement fund while they are in office.; Reply to this comment


by truthfairy1 May 29, 2010 4:59 PM EDT: The Republican party and Right-wing advocacy groups have been purposefully misinforming the public about HCR as part of their campaign to derail it & justify GOP state AG's bogus repeal campaign.

I was on Independent Women's Forum site & could not believe the total lies they wrote about what HCR does to Medicare. I discovered just how bad their lies were in the Truth Squad section of the National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security & Medicare site! I urge you to visit it: http://www.ncpssm.org/truth_squad/

NCPSSM says:
"..well-financed misinformation and fear campaigns have led many to believe health care reform will destroy Medicare. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Without health care reform, Medicare will continue to suffer from skyrocketing costs associated with general health care costs, until neither seniors nor the government will be able to afford the program. This inevitably will lead to unprecedented cuts in Medicare - cuts that unlike current health care reform proposals - will directly target Medicare beneficiaries. National health care reform provides an historic opportunity for us to improve Medicare by closing the Part D doughnut hole, allowing government negotiation of drug prices in Part D and eliminating billions of dollars of wasteful subsidies to private insurers in Medicare. Ignoring Health Care Reform is not an option."

IWF is aligned with Americans For Prosperity, Freedomworks, John Birch Society and many more....they're all founded or funded by the very right-wing Koch Industries, the biggest US oil company & 2nd largest US company. Greenpeace just did a huge expose showing that Koch Industries is behind Climate Denial, anti-HCR Tea Party events, anti-Obama policies. It's fascinating:
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/usa/press-center/reports4/koch-industries-secretly-fund.pdf

Here you'll find the Truth Squad tool kit for all of our National Committee myth busters. It includes: links to National Committee health care reform policy documents, health care posts from our blog "EntitledtoKnow", our Truth Squad video series busting health care reform myths and a link where you can download your own Truth Squad badge. Share it with friends and wear it proudly to town halls and meetings with your members of Congress.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries-secretly-fund; Reply to this comment


by chevyhotrod May 26, 2010 11:06 AM EDT: Health Care Law
63% Favor Repeal of National Health Care Plan
May 24, 2010

While opposition to the bill has remained as consistent since its passage as it was beforehand, this marks the first time that support for repeal has climbed into the 60s. It will be interesting to see whether this marks a brief bounce or indicates a trend of growing opposition.

www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/march_2010/health_care_law

Rasmussen Reports has a much higher percentage of being correct when polling that CBS hands down.

CBS is in the tank for the Obama Administration, I would not trust anything they do with regards to legislation that was created by the Democrats. It would not be trustworthy.; Reply to this comment


by tsigili May 26, 2010 10:18 AM EDT: No support here. This is the worst legislation to pass Congress, in years!; Reply to this comment

by BlueDogDem May 26, 2010 9:50 AM EDT

Folks, there are no "death panels" nor any government rationing of health care in new law. When are you going to stop talking this nonsense? This is a market-based reform bill and the only government "intervention" is that people must now take responsibility for purchasing their own health insurance so the rest of us don't end up paying their medical bills every time they get sick. For those who are temporarily unable to afford health insurance (due to being out of work), subsidies will be provided until they're back on their feet to help pay premiums. That's it. There's no single-payer, there's no public option, there are no "death panels", there's no "secret government takeover" of the private health care system, there's just common sense reform.

Now, quit your whining, take some personal responsibility for yourself and go buy health insurance between now and 2014.

Reply to this comment


by chevyhotrod May 26, 2010 11:17 AM EDT: Keep drinking the kool-aid blue dog. I have my own health insurance. My premiums are going up, my taxes will be going up to pay for this new healthcare law and we are still going to be paying for emergency rooms visits by people who do not have health insurance. Don't believe me, do some research on what has happened in other areas where this has been tried before. Massachusetts for starters, but that is just the beginning. Time will tell and it will be to late and people like you will have to live with what you have done.

People like me will always take personal responsibility, the ones you hurt are the people who do not take personal responsibility, you know the people that the blue dogs and Democrats are always fighting for?


by metaphorsbwithu May 26, 2010 12:10 PM EDT: Obama just appointed one of the chief proponents of healthcare rationing in the U.S., Donald Berwick, to run Medicare. He loves the British system which allots "points" to people based on factors like age, viability, and usefulness. Ezekiel Emanuel and others in the Obama Administration have pushed the argument that rationing, especially for the elderly and "non-productive" is necessary. Keep pushing the talking points. The facts are coming out and people are actually beginning to see what a disaster that is coming. ;-)

by nolieshere May 25, 2010 11:04 PM EDT

I was going to vote in the poll but I had an appointment with the 'death panel'.

Reply to this comment


by jgg000101 May 25, 2010 11:54 PM EDT: of course they don't call them "death panels" but that is exactly what health rationing is. There will be committees who will decide if someone's granny warrants more chemotherapy, or if she's had enough.

by wfw3536 May 25, 2010 9:49 PM EDT

I wonder who did this poll and who they talked too. Obviously, it isn't accurate as people are finding out the real truth about this bill. Just last week we find out that Obama and the democrats forgot to tell us the bill was going to cost us another 120 billion when they knew this information before the vote was taken by the senate. And on top of that they now tell us they want another 200 billion to pay doctors for medicare cost. Just more and more. Either these folks in this administration don't have a clue or they just didn't tell us the truth.

Reply to this comment


by pasmalltown May 26, 2010 7:32 AM EDT: by wfw3536 May 25, 2010 9:49 PM EDT -
Look, this is just a poll, depending on which side of the healthcare fence you sit, you have the "option" to believe it's validity or not. And it was the CBO that suggested the extra 115 billion dollars, not 120 - and this still remains an estimate. It would seem your "grapes" are souring over this poll because it doesn't support you position. I wouldn't be overly concerned about how "accurate" this poll is and the "real truth" is yet to come.

As far as your "wondering" goes: read the beginning and the end of this article:
"CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto."

"This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1054 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone May 20-24, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher."
"This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls." These are the facts your political slant(rant?) seemed to have ignored..........