The Supreme Court 5 to 4 ruling upholding President Barack Obama’s controversial health care reform law has given “Obamacare” a big bounce in the polls, Reuters reports:
Voter support for President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul has increased following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling upholding it, although majorities still oppose it, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday showed.
Among all registered voters, support for the law rose to 48 percent in the online survey conducted after Thursday’s ruling, up from 43 percent before the court decision. Opposition slipped to 52 percent from 57 percent.
The survey showed increased backing from Republicans and, crucially, the political independents whose support will be essential to winning the Nov. 6 presidential election.
Watch a)the independents b)polls about whether voters feel the country is heading in the wrong direction.
Thirty-eight percent of independents supported the healthcare overhaul. That was up from 27 percent from a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken days before the justices’ ruling. Opposition among independents was 62 percent, versus 73 percent earlier.
“This is a win for Obama. This is his bill. There’s not really any doubt in people’s minds, that it belongs to him,” said Julia Clark, vice president at Ipsos Public Affairs. “It’s his baby. It’s literally been labeled ‘Obamacare’ … which maybe it works in his favor now that there’s a little bit of a victory dance going on.”
Republican opposition to the law stayed strong, if somewhat weaker than before the high court ruled. Eighty-one percent of Republicans opposed it in the most recent survey, down from 86 percent in the poll conducted June 19-23. In the earlier poll, 14 percent of Republicans supported the healthcare plan, compared to 19 percent in the more recent one.
Illustrating the political polarization on the issue, three-quarters of Democrats backed the law, the same as a week earlier. One quarter opposed it.
The task now is for the Dems to make the case for the law — about what it actually offers, when the new portions will kick in, and what it would mean to remove the law. The task for the Republicans is to be specific about what they don’t like and why, and specifically what they would to do address key issues the law seeks to address. House Speaker John Boehner has vowed to completely repeal the law but has not specified what Republicans would put in its place. This suggests Obama & Co. can make inroads about independents if they are specific and call for details from the GOP about what their specific alternative is to what’s contained in the existing law.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.