Rasmussen: People still oppose ObamaCare

Think of it as a good news/bad news update from Rasmussen today.  The good news?  ObamaCare still has double-digit opposition among likely voters in their latest survey.  However, those numbers have shrunk a bit over the last month:

Democrats in Congress are vowing to pass their national health care plan with a vote in the House possible by the end of this week. But most voters still oppose the plan the same way they have for months.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 43% favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, while 53% oppose it. Those findings include 23% who Strongly Favor the plan and 46% who Strongly Oppose it.

The numbers are virtually unchanged from last week and are consistent with findings in regularly tracking going back to just after Thanksgiving.

That’s not quite true.  At one point, Rasmussen had ObamaCare down as much as 18 points, in two successive January polls that predated the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, and 19 points in early February just after it.  It’s also been as low as eight points just three weeks ago, when it hit its highest support level (44%) since mid-November’s 47%.

Besides that volatility, though, the currents are still mainly the same.  Only Democrats support this bill (75%), while Republicans (84%) and independents (58%) oppose it.  Majorities of both genders oppose it (55% men, 51% women), with half of all men and 42% of all women strongly opposing it.  Only the youngest voters support it (55/42), and only the lowest income level (55/36), although it’s an even split for $60-75K earners at 48%.

Why does opposition remain fairly constant?  Voters aren’t buying the Democratic sales pitch.  A majority (52%) believe health-care quality will decline with ObamaCare; only 24% think it will improve.  Fifty-five percent believe that costs will go up because of the government takeover, while only 18% believe Barack Obama when he argues that costs will decrease.

Given those internals, it is difficult to see how Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill can close the gap any more than the ten-point deficit they have at the moment.  If that was a rebound, it’s safe to say it’s peaked.

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