Polls show continued confusion over health law as battle for public support continues

The Associated Press: A new AP poll has found that more than half of Americans believe — in error — that the health law will raise their taxes this year. The law is also muddying up the minds of many struggling to figure out what the provisions mean to them. The tax finding, for instance, "would be true only if most people were devoted to indoor tanning, which got hit with a sales tax. Many who wanted the health care system to be overhauled don't realize that some provisions they cared about actually did make it in. And about a quarter of supporters don't understand that something hardly anyone wanted didn't make it: They mistakenly say the law will set up panels of bureaucrats to make decisions about people's care — what critics labeled 'death panels.'" The confusion is hurting efforts by the Obama administration to sell the law and is endangering Democrats in Congress who face re-election fights this fall." The AP survey was conducted Aug. 31 to Sept. 7. It was based on interviews with 1,251 randomly chosen adults nationwide. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points (Alonso-Zaldivar and Tompson, 9/21).

Politico : "Six months after President Barack Obama signed the Democrats' bill into law, more Americans still oppose it than support it — and a relatively smooth implementation process has done virtually nothing to change the negative feelings that arose during the long legislative debate. … According to Pollster.com's aggregate look at polling data, 49 percent of Americans oppose the law, while just 41 percent support it. Democrats and their allies concede that they're losing the message war: In the past month alone, Kantar Media's Evan Tracey said, anti-reform groups have poured $14 million into TV spots — more than seven times as much as pro-reform forces have spent" (Kliff and Haberkorn, 9/22).

NPR: It "appears the political benefits of the measure have yet to materialize for the White House. The administration assumed and many political analysts did too, that once people got to know what was in the law, the measure would become more popular. ... Democrats, who were assured their vote for the law would help them this fall, are not campaigning on it. Only those Democrats who were against it are calling attention to their votes" (Liasson, 9/22).

Politico: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "says the hardest part of her job hasn't been implementing an overhaul of the insurance system or pushing out numerous regulations on tight deadlines - it's batting back a constant 'drumbeat' of 'erroneous information.' … Despite the marketing challenge, Sebelius rejects charges that Democrats are running scared from the law. While advertising numbers show anti-reform forces outspending pro-reform groups by a 7-to-1 ratio, she contends that television spots don't tell the entire story" (Kliff, 9/21).

CongressDaily: The White House is fighting back against Republican pushes to repeal or defund the law. "A senior administration official warned that if Republicans make inroads on plans to scrap the bill or hold back funding for it, then 'insurance company abuses will wreak havoc on consumers across the country.' … The comments came during a week when Obama wants to bolster support for his reform effort" (DoBias, 9/22).

The New York Times: "But White House officials are betting that the politics of health care will start to turn around when people start to reap the benefits of the new provisions" (Shear, 9/22).

The Washington Post reports that Obama will celebrate the 6-month-old law with a "backyard party in the Virginia suburbs. … Obama is not going to start trying to persuade Democrats to embrace the measure, administration officials said. He is assuming the role of solo champion, acknowledging that it is a tougher issue for some members of his party who are on the ballot in November. Although White House officials have said Democrats should be proud of their votes, they also acknowledged that the current atmosphere makes that tough." White House officials believe that Republican efforts to repeal the law may overreach and that voters don't want to repeal the law before it was given a chance to work (Kornblut, 9/22).

Reuters: Obama's "event will include Americans from across the country who are already benefiting from healthcare reform, the White House said, seeking to put a human face on a law that has seemed to many voters to be mostly a confusing array of new regulations" (Zengerle, 9/22).