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New polls show people don't want health care reform repealed, but don't understand it either



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I don't think people know what they want, because people have no idea what's in the law.

First from ThinkProgress:

Consider first the results of a new Bloomberg poll. Respondents were asked whether we should either repeal health care reform, see how it works and then perhaps make small modifications, or leave it alone. A solid majority (57 percent) said we should either see how it works (46 percent) or leave it alone (11 percent). Only 37 percent favored repeal.
Similar results from a Harris poll, which confirms that opposition is in the 37% to 41% range, i.e., Republicans:
On the second anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, a new Harris Poll finds that the public is still more or less equally split between those who support it (36%) and oppose it (41%), with many people (23%) still not sure.
Here's my favorite part - a conclusion from the Harris poll people:
Most of the opposition to the ACA is not based on what is actually in the bill.

Rather it reflects a general hostility to President Obama and the fears of many Conservatives and Republicans that he and the Democrats are intent on expanding the role of government.
So basically, conservatives hate Obama, so they want to repeal a law they don't even understand, hurting millions as a consequence. Isn't that nice.

As an aside, I also got a kick out of this Kaiser Family poll, showing that a majority of Americans think health care reform is unconstitutional. Like any of them would have a clue what constitutes a constitutional law. The correct answer to the poll question, for 99% of Americans, is "I have no idea" (which was the answer of only 21%).

Of course, 4 in 10, in the same poll, think the law has already been overturned, or aren't sure.

Also fascinating - 59% don't have enough information to know how the health care reform law will affect them personally.  What's also fascinating is that, over time, people are forgetting the meager information they did know about the new law. (That's because the administration refused to sell it to people, before or after its passage, while the GOP has continued to lie about it incessantly.)

And 35% of Democrats - DEMOCRATS - think the law includes death panels. The number rises only slightly to 41% among Republicans.  Just to illustrate what a bad job folks have done educating people about this.


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