Policy Insights

Well before we have any clarity on the impact of the election on health reform, the pundits are handicapping the prospects of efforts to make a serious dent in the national debt and deficit.  Three national commissions are hammering out recommendations for reducing the debt and reining in entitlement spending,…

This month’s Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, conducted during the four days following the mid-term election, asked voters in an open-ended question to name in their own words the biggest factors influencing their vote for Congress, and found that health care was a factor, but not a dominant one. Among all…

With the November midterm elections just weeks away, Americans remain chronically divided over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but most say that their feelings – pro and con — about the health reform law are not a dominant factor in how they will vote for Congress or whether…

With much media discussion of the role that the Tea Party will play in the upcoming congressional midterm elections, the Kaiser Family Foundation took a closer look at Tea Party supporters using its most recent Health Tracking Poll data from September. While 57 percent of voters who do not support…

There is a lot of talk in polling and political circles and some speculation in the media about the role of health reform in the midterm elections. We regularly measure what the public thinks about health reform and you see reports from our monthly tracking polls about that. But whether those…

The tug of war for public opinion on health reform continues this month, with approval and disapproval remaining in the same relatively narrow band each has occupied since passage even as favorable views regain a small upper hand, 49 percent favorable vs. 40 percent unfavorable. Opinion is more closely divided…

Six months after its enactment, there are two totally different stories to tell about the health-reform law. The public remains split on the law largely along traditional partisan lines. Confusion and misperception are rampant, with more than a third of seniors still thinking the law contains “death panels” (it does…

Support for health reform fell over the past month, dipping from a 50 percent favorability rating in July to 43 percent now, while 45 percent of the public reported unfavorable views. The dip in favorability returned public opinion on the new law to the even split last seen in May…

President Obama’s visit to New Orleans on August 29, five years after Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures nearly destroyed the city, presented an opportunity for him to deliver a message on behalf of us all: The country still cares. It was a timely message. Seven-in-ten residents of New Orleans…

The July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll indicates overall public support for the health reform law is steady from June, while unfavorable views of the law have trended downward somewhat. Half the public (50%) now expresses a favorable view of the law, while 35 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion…