The headline number from the CNN/ORC International poll released this morning is 62 percent – that’s the share of Americans who reported that they opposed Obamacare, and it’s the highest figure ever. Only 35 percent of respondents said they were in favor of the law.
A deeper dive into the new poll numbers, however, reveals a somewhat more nuanced view of the law among Americans. Of those who said they were opposed to the law, a significant percentage – equal to 15 percent of the population overall – said their opposition stemmed from a belief that the law is “not liberal enough.”
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This means that exactly 50 percent of Americans either favor Obamacare as it is, or wish it were more liberal. By comparison, 43 percent of Americans oppose the law because it is “too liberal.”
The percentage of people who expect to be “worse off” under Obamacare ticked up to 42 percent, as opposed to 40 percent when the poll was last taken in September. There was a corresponding drop in the percentage of people who said they would be either “better off” under the law and those who said they would be “about the same.” Sixteen percent of respondents said they would be “better off,” down from 17 percent previously, while 40 percent said they would be about the same, down from 41 percent.
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Asked whether they believed they would be able to continue receiving care from their current doctor, 35 percent said they would not – while 61 percent said they would, with four percent unsure.
Only seven percent of those polled expected their health care costs to decline under the new law, while 63 percent said they expected them to increase. Twenty-eight percent expected them to remain the same.
The survey was based on interviews with 1,035 American adults conducted between December 16 and 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. – Follow Rob Garver on Twitter @rrgarver
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