Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Support for Health Reform Law Dips in October

After remaining roughly evenly split for most of the last year and a half, this month’s tracking poll found a higher share of the public expressing negative views towards the health reform law. About half (51 percent) say they have an unfavorable view of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), while 34 percent have a favorable view, a low point in Kaiser polls since the law was passed. While Democrats continue to be substantially more supportive of the law than independents or Republicans, the change in favorability this month was largely driven by waning enthusiasm for the law among Democrats, among whom the share with a favorable view dropped from nearly two-thirds (65 percent) in September to just over half (52 percent) in October.

With Mitt Romney among the top candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, this month’s poll also asked the public about their impressions of the Massachusetts health reform law that passed when Romney was the state’s governor. The survey finds that nearly three quarters of the public, including seven in ten likely Republican presidential primary voters, say they don’t know enough about the Massachusetts law to have either a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of it.