The public sentiment on the Affordable Care Act continues to shift in the law’s favor, even in districts held by conservatives, according to a new poll.
The Democracy Corps survey of Republican-controlled districts, previewed by The Huffington Post, finds respondents in those areas continue to shift toward favoring the health reform law as time passes.
The number who oppose the law because it “goes too far” in districts held by a Republican has dropped to 43% from 48% late last year. Opponents still outnumber the 41% who say they favor the law. Meanwhile, another 9% say they oppose the law because it doesn’t go far enough, indicating that a significant chunk would support the law if it were more liberal with perhaps a public option.
In GOP-held districts that are deemed most likely to be won by Democrats come November, the law’s popularity is growing too. A majority — 54% — of respondents say the law should be implemented and fixed while only 40% want it repealed and replaced.
The polling comes from the a Democratic-leaning outfit, and comes as some Democrats have begun to embrace the law more forcefully.
In Pennsylvania, the race to embrace the health reform law has Democrats seeking to oust GOP Gov. Tom Corbett battling over who likes the law more. In Alaska, a super PAC supporting Sen. Mark Begich released an ad this month bragging about the benefits of the law. A Democratic candidate in Kentucky, a state that has become a model for its implementation of the law, is openly criticizing the Republican congressman she hopes to oust for voting to repeal the law 19 times, which would “let insurance companies drop coverage, deny care and charge women more.”
Recent polling has shown that opposition to the law peaked last fall around the time of the botched website rollout. While the law still has more opponents than supporters, a series of Gallup surveys shows that the margin of difference between those two groups shrank from 16 points to 11 points between January and April.
Morgan Whitaker