More than half the public opposes Obamacare, but support for the president's signature healthcare law is slightly higher than President Barack Obama's job approval rating, a new poll has found.
According to a
National Public Radio poll conducted March 19-23 of 840 likely voters, 51 percent oppose Obamacare, including 40 percent who strongly oppose it. This compares to 47 percent who support the new healthcare law, including 28 percent who strongly favor it.
By comparison, Obama's job approval rating is 46 percent, while 51 percent disapprove. Of those who disapprove, 41 percent say they strongly disapprove, compared to 24 percent who strongly support the president.
The pollsters, one Republican and one Democrat, have different views on what the data suggests in terms of the impact that views on Obamacare will have for Democrats in the 2014 elections.
"The conventional wisdom that it's an unpopular program that hangs around the necks of Democrats is absolutely a misreading of the poll data," Democrat Stan Greenberg, one of the pollsters, said.
Greenberg said that 7 percent of likely voters oppose the law because it doesn't go far enough.
Whit Ayres, the Republican pollster who worked on the survey, however, said the data suggests that Obamacare will still be a great issue for Republicans this fall.
"First, more people oppose than support Obamacare, as has been the case since it passed. Second, the intensity is on the side of opposition, and intensity drives voting behavior. Third, independents oppose Obamacare by 21 points in this survey and they hold the balance of power in this election," Ayres said.
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