The increased public attention to health reform generated by the Supreme Court's consideration of the law did little to change public opinion, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds.
Forty-two percent say they have a favorable opinion of the law this month and 43 percent have an unfavorable one, a division virtually unchanged from March. The poll had 1,210 respondents.
Similarly, the individual mandate is as unpopular as it was in March, but not more so. Seven in ten Americans oppose this provision, including 53 percent of the public who say they hold "very unfavorable" views of it. Overall, half of Americans (51 percent) believe the court should rule the mandate unconstitutional, identical to March.
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The Supreme Court hearings did help Americans become more familiar with the law, though. The majority (74 percent) report this month they are aware that the individual mandate is part of the health care law, up from 64 percent before the Court heard oral arguments last month. And the proportion who feels they understand how the law will impact them jumped to 51 percent, up 12 percentage points from March. Overall, half the public reported following news about the Court challenge at least fairly closely in April, up from 37 percent last March.
And feelings about the Court itself have changed among Republicans. After oral arguments, 43 percent of Republican respondents said they had confidence in the justices, up 19 percentage points from the previous month. Only 29 percent of Democrats, however, said in April that they had confidence in the justices, almost unchanged from March.
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