Poll finds support for repealing Obama health law at record low

Public support for repealing President Obama’s signature healthcare law hit a record low following Obama’s reelection.

The latest Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found just 33 percent support for repealing the law, the lowest level the poll has recorded since Obama signed the healthcare law in March 2010.

{mosads}The drop comes as many Republicans are acknowledging that “ObamaCare” is here to stay. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said last week that “ObamaCare is the law of the land” and the House therefore won’t keep voting to repeal the entire law.

Boehner’s office quickly walked the statement back, but the Kaiser poll is further evidence that the public has little interest in continuing the fight over a law that passed more than two years ago.

Public attitudes about the healthcare law ticked upward in the latest poll, conducted last week after Election Day, but remain stubbornly divided. Forty-three percent said they have a favorable view of the law, while 39 percent said they have an unfavorable view — almost the exact inverse of last month’s results.

Obama’s reelection secured the future of the Affordable Care Act, but the victory came after a bruising fight over entitlements. GOP nominee Mitt Romney and his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) accused Obama of “robbing” $716 billion from Medicare to pay for his health law, cuts they said would hurt seniors’ access to care. The attacks helped drive Obama’s once-staggering lead on healthcare issues into the single digits by the last weeks of the campaign.

According to the Kaiser poll, though, voters still trust Obama to do the right thing on entitlements and healthcare.

Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said Obama’s second term will be good for Medicare, compared with just 29 percent who said he will be bad for the program. Pluralities also said Obama will be good for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

Overall, 50 percent said Obama’s second term will be good for seniors, with 27 percent saying it will be bad. And 56 percent said Obama will be good for women — reflecting a gender gap that Democrats sought to widen during the campaign largely using healthcare issues, including the Obama administration’s controversial contraception mandate.