Opposition to the health care law skyrocketed in July to reach the highest point ever, according to a Friday tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The pro-Obamacare health care nonprofit found that 53 percent of Americans view the health care law unfavorably right now, up from 45 percent in June. It’s the largest majority that viewed Obamacare negatively in Kaiser’s monthly polls since the health care law was passed in 2010.
While a majority of Americans say they haven’t been personally impacted, almost twice as many respondents said Obamacare has hurt them than feel they’ve benefited from it. Mostly through rising health care costs and insurance premiums, 28 percent said the law has hurt them, while just 15 percent said they’ve been helped.
It’s less surprising, then, that when asked about personal conversations about the health-care law, just 6 percent said that they’d heard mostly good things. Meanwhile, 27 percent reported that their friends and family had said mostly bad things about the Affordable Care Act (a majority hadn’t discussed it at all).
While the health-care law has reached its lowest popularity ever by Kaiser’s continuous tracking polls, 60 percent of those surveyed hope Congress works to improve the law, rather than repeal it.
It’s beginning to look like the health-care law will never attract the public’s support. Premiums are rising, against the promise of Obamacare supporters, but the most drastic premium hikes will likely not take effect until 2017, according to experts. And opposition to the law is still at its highest, even during a slow month for news about the law.
The barrage of lawsuits against Obamacare and its implementation are finally reaching the nation’s top courts, however. Hobby Lobby’s victorious lawsuit against Obamacare’s mandate that companies must provide free birth control coverage to female employees sparked Democrats’ indignation and hopes to revive the “war on women” line in the November midterms.
But according to the Kaiser poll, public opinion is evenly split on the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby. In fact, access to birth control is the lowest priority issue for voters. An overwhelming 85 percent majority reported that the Hobby Lobby decision doesn’t really change their plans on whether to vote in November — including 79 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of independents.
Most Americans didn’t seem perturbed by the decision at all. More respondents believe the Hobby Lobby decision won’t make it more difficult for women to obtain birth control. Fifty percent of the public said it won’t be harder, while 45 percent said the decision will make it more difficult.
And when a religious employer, such as Hobby Lobby, chooses not to provide free birth-control coverage to their employees, almost half of Americans think women should buy the coverage themselves. Forty-seven percent said women should pay for their own coverage.
Just 36 percent think the health insurance company should foot the bill for contraceptive coverage — which is the current “religious accommodation” the Obama administration offers only to religious nonprofits. The Supreme Court recently buffeted lawsuits pending against the administration’s accommodation as well. (RELATED: Supreme Court Grants Christian College Injunction Over Obamcare Religious Exemption)