Views on Obamacare have taken a negative shift, according to a November Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Tuesday.
Forty-five percent of Americans now say they have a negative view of the Affordable Care Act, while 38 percent have a positive view. This represents a reversal from earlier this year when, for the first time in three years, a greater number of Americans were in favor of the law than against it.
In October, a KFF poll found opinion evenly split on the law at 42 percent. The foundation's September poll showed a more narrow divide, with a 41 percent favorable to 45 percent unfavorable rating. A KFF survey conducted in August showed opinion skewed more favorably, with 44 percent of Americans stating they had a positive view and 41 percent stating they had a negative one.
Opinions on Obamacare continue to be split along partisan lines. Sixty-three percent of Democrats in the poll have a favorable view of the law, while three quarters of Republicans have an unfavorable view. Independents are more narrowly divided with 36 percent who view the law favorably and 44 percent who view it unfavorably.
Americans also stand divided on what they want to see done with the law. Thirty percent want Congress to repeal the law, 12 percent would prefer them to just scale back on how much power the law has, 16 percent want it to remain as is, and 26 percent want Congress to expand it. Opinions on what Americans want to see happen with the law moving forward are also influenced by partisanship.
A Gallup poll released earlier this month also showed Americans shifting more negative on the ACA, with 52 percent disapproving and 44 percent approving of the law.
While Obamacare has successfully reduced the number of Americans who are uninsured, the law hasn't become broadly accepted -- and Gallup's Andrew Dugan doubts it will in the near future. Instead, he predicts that "[i]t will likely remain the target of efforts to repeal or significantly modify it, which could finally prevail if Americans elect a wholly Republican federal government in 2016."
The Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed 1,352 American adults using live interviews to land lines and cell phones Nov. 10 through 17.