Americans approved of the Supreme Court decision upholding the 2010 health care law by a narrow 47 percent to 43 percent plurality, but the ruling energized Democrats after weeks of concern that the court might strike down all or part of the legislation, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll conducted June 28-30. Ten percent of the public didn’t know or were undecided on how they felt about the court’s action.
Overall, the public remains divided in its opinion of the law with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving, with 18 percent undecided.
But the number of Democrats who said they had a very favorable view of the law jumped from 31 percent in May to 47
percent. The intensity of Republican opposition remained high, with 64 percent holding a very unfavorable view.
While 70 percent of all Americans say that the court’s upholding of the law won’t impact their decision on whether to vote in November, 31 percent of Republicans and 27 percent of independents who lean Republican said the decision would motivate them to go to the polls. By comparison, less than 20% of Democrats, Democratic-leaning independents and non-leaning independents said the court decision might change the likelihood of whether they vote.
A majority (56 percent) of those surveyed said opponents should stop their efforts to lock the law and move on to other issues now that the court has ruled.Eighty-two percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Democratic-leaning independents hold that view, as do 51 percent of non-leaning independents. But 69% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents want to continue the fight to stop the law from being implemented.
The closely-divided public opinion on the Court’s ruling was also reflected in two other polls.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted June 28-July 1 found 40 percent approving of the decision while 36 percent disapproved, with 24% in the “don’t know” column. Pew also found that only 55 percent believed the court upheld most of the law’s provisions while 15 percent said the court rejected them, and 30 percent said they didn’t know.
A CNN/Opinion Research poll, also conducted June 28-July 1, in which 50 percent agreed with the decision and 49 percent did not. Forty-eight percent described themselves as enthusiastic or pleased, and 51 percent were displeased or angry.