Poll: Small Bump in Health Care Believers
CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto.
A new CBS News poll shows Americans are giving President Obama credit for getting sweeping health care reform legislation passed in the House of Representatives on Sunday, and slightly more people now approve of the policy changes, but not quite a majority.
CBS re-interviewed 649 adults, initially questioned for a poll conducted March 18-21, on Monday and Tuesday following the House vote.
Of those re-interviewed, 47 percent said they approved of the job the President is doing on health care, up six points from the CBS News Poll conducted just prior to the House vote. However, views of his handling of health care were still mixed, with 48 percent saying they disapprove.
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Two in three Americans re-interviewed after the bill passed said the passage represents an accomplishment for the President - including more than half who saw it as a major accomplishment, up from 46 percent before Sunday's vote. Just 32 percent said it was not an accomplishment for Mr. Obama.
Most Democrats and half of independents said they viewed health care reform as a major accomplishment for President Obama. Few Republicans saw it that way.
Support for the bill itself has also risen five points since the House vote Sunday night. Before the vote, 37 percent of Americans approved of the bill while 48 percent disapproved. Now those same Americans are more closely divided, with 42 percent expressing approval and 46 percent disapproval. Still, a third "strongly" disapproves.
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It may take more time before Americans decide whether or not these reforms are advantageous to them personally, but the percentage that now say they don't think the bill will affect them has grown.
When re-interviewed, 43 percent said the reforms would not have much of an affect on them or their families - up eight points from 35 percent before the vote. Just 16 percent said the legislation would help them personally - down four points from before the vote.
For more results from this new CBS News Poll, tune into the CBS Evening News Wednesday night.
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This poll was conducted by telephone on March 22-23, 2010 among 649 adults first interviewed by CBS News March 18-21, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from 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 four percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.