Support for repeal of health bill grows

Support for repeal of health bill grows
From Marketwatch Blog

Support for repeal of controversial health-care legislation is growing, according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports.

The tracking service said Monday that 58% of those surveyed are in favor of revoking the measures recently passed by the House and Senate designed to reform health care, with 50% of voters strongly favoring repeal. The 58% figure is up from the 54% of voters favoring repeal a week ago, which remained unchanged from the week before that.

Those strongly opposing repeal dropped by the same margin, down to 38% from the 42% posted a week ago, Rasmussen says.

Rasmussen says support for repeal is growing among Republicans, as 88% of that party’s members are against it, along with 54% of unaffiliated voters. On the other side, 61% of Democrats are opposed to repeal. Republican support grew by eight points while Democratic opposition declined by seven points.

Among likely voters in this latest survey, though, only 38% think it is likely that the health-care bill will be repealed, and 18% say it is not at all likely. And over the weekend, Rasmussen reported that President Barack Obama has received a bit of a boost in his approval ratings.

Those who strongly approve of Obama’s job performance as the nation’s chief executive has grown to 31%, and that metric has hovered in the 28% to 34% range since passage of health reform, Rasmussen says. Prior to that, Obama got a “strongly approve” rating from 22% to 27% of those surveyed.

Still, those who “strongly disapprove” of Obama’s job performance is higher, at 42%, Rasmussen says.

Russ Britt, Los Angeles bureau chief