A rising number of Americans support the Affordable Care Act, according to the results of a new poll.
The CBS News-New York Times survey finds that 47 percent of Americans back the law, up from 43 percent in May. Just 32 percent supported the law when it was passed in March 2010.
Forty-four percent of Americans currently disapprove of the law, marking the first time in the CBS News-New York Times poll's history that more Americans back it vs. disapprove of it.
The far majority of Republicans — 72 percent — are against the law, according to the poll data, while 70 percent of Democrats support it.
Despite the support for the law, only 9 percent of those polled think the law should remain in its current form. Fifty-five percent think there are good things about it but want to see it changed. Thirty-one percent want it repealed.
Further, 70 percent of those surveyed think the Supreme Court should keep the subsidies portion of the law intact, which provides financial assistance to help people pay for health coverage.
The subsidies piece of the law could be in jeopardy
pending the ruling of a Supreme Court case.
More than 6 million Americans could be affected by the case if the justices' ruling nullifies the subsidies portion of Obamacare
thanks to a four-word phrase written into it. A ruling could also collapse the healthcare system.
Republican members of Congress have been coming up with alternative forms of Obamacare should the Supreme Court rule it is invalid. One solution, however, is to simply
extend the subsidies to ensure millions of Americans would not lose their health insurance.
A report last week, meanwhile, said the government
is unable to prove the accuracy of subsidy payments during the first four months of 2014.
The White House is confident enough in arguments supporting the law that it has not come up
with any backup plans should the court decide that portions, or all of, the law are invalid.
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