Friday, June 29, 2012

Public Opinion on the Supreme Court's Obamacare Ruling

With the U.S. Supreme Court having upheld the constitutionality of nearly all aspects of the Affordable Care Act yesterday, pollsters are now starting to gauge public opinion toward the Court's decision. I will start compiling the results of these polls below:
  • Gallup (via Talking Points Memo, June 29): "Forty-six percent said the Court made the right decision, while 46 percent said the[y] disagreed with it."
  • Reuters/Ipsos (via Political Wire, July 1): "Support for health care law rises after Court ruling."
  • Kaiser Family Foundation (via Daily Kos, July 2): 56% say opponents of the law should "stop their efforts to block the law and move on to other national problems," whereas 38% say opponents should "continue trying to block the law from being implemented."
  • CNN/Opinion Research (via Political Wire, July 2): "...American voters are evenly divided on last week's health care ruling, with 50% saying they agree with the Supreme Court's decision and 49% saying they disagree."
  • Washington Post/ABC (via Political Wire, July 3): "A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds Americans split on President Obama's health care law, with 45% in favor and 48% opposed." 
  • Quinnipiac (via Political Wire, July 12): "...voters agree by a 48% to 45% margin with [...] the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's health care law, while they say 49% to 43% that the Congress should repeal it." If one looks at the detailed report from Quinnipiac, however, one sees that the question this organization has always used to measure attitudes toward repealing the ACA presents a dichotomous yes/no format, without a middle-ground option such as repealing parts of the law and keeping others ("Do you think Congress should try to repeal the health care law, or should they let it stand?").