Gallup Poll: Obama Receives Failing Grade on Healthcare Policy

According to Gallup, Inc., the world's leading public opinion pollsters, disapproval of President Obama's handling of healthcare policy has reached an all-time high of 53% with an incomparably low 40% of Americans approving of his performance. The poll of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, was conducted between November 20-22, 2009, and has a 95% confidence interval with a maximum margin of error of ±4 percentage points.

Particularly sobering news for the White House is that Independents are almost doubly as likely to disapprove of the president's management of healthcare-58% to 33%. Republicans are virtually unanimous in their rejection of Obama's work on the issue with 89% disapproving and just 6% approving. And, among Democrats, the president's approval on healthcare policy is 74%, but this is six-percentage points lower than his overall job rating with his partisan supporters.

President Obama's failing marks are clearly a result of his attempt to force his party's healthcare legislation on an unreceptive public; opposition to so-called Obamacare has reached an all-time high of 49% with only 44% of poll respondents supporting the reform measure. According to Gallup: "Since [we] began tracking Americans' preferences for healthcare legislation earlier this year, there has never been a strong public mandate in favor of passing a law..... The high point in support was 51% in early October. But since that time, opinion has shifted from a ... positive position to a ... negative one. ... Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to new healthcare legislation -- 86% would advise their member of Congress to vote against it, while 12% would want their member to support it. Democrats, on the other hand, favor it by a 76% to 17% margin. Independents oppose passage of a bill by 53% to 37%. Support among all three party groups has declined since the early October high -- falling by 6 points among Democrats, 8 among Independents, and 12 among Republicans."

On November 7, 2009, the so-called "Affordable Health Care for America Act" narrowly passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 220-215. Nearly 40 Democrats defected from the president and only 1 Republican supported the legislation. Two-weeks later, on November 21, 2009, the United States Senate voted to permit debate on the bill. That debate is scheduled to begin today.

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Source(s):

Jones, Jeffrey M. "Americans Still Leaning Against Healthcare Legislation," Gallup, Inc.