Worries About Cost and Quality Fuel Opposition to Health Care Reform

Fifty-six percent of voters oppose the health care overhaul being pushed by President Obama and congressional Democrats while 41 percent favor it, the lowest level of support so far in polls conducted by Rasmussen Reports. This one was done Sept. 24-25. The poll also found clear majorities believing passage of a reform bill will result in lower quality of care and higher costs.

The pro and con numbers are not much different than Rasmussen's previous weekly polls on the issue (last week, the same 56 percent opposed the reform plan being discussed and 43 supported it). The takeaway is likely, as Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com has said, that the numbers in most polls on the subject are probably not going to change much now that "both sides have really fired all their bullets."

The number of those who say they "strongly" support or oppose has not varied much this month. In the latest poll, 43 percent are strongly opposed and 23 percent strongly favor reform.

One number that has been inching upward in the Rasmussen surveys is the percentage of those who believe health care reform will make the quality of care worse. Fifty-five percent have that view, up from 51 percent last week and 46 percent earlier this month. Twenty-four percent say the quality of care will get better, about the same as last week, but down from a high of 34 percent in mid-September. Seventeen percent believe quality will stay about the same, roughly in line with the figures of previous weeks.

Fifty-four percent say health care costs will go up under a reform plan, compared to 23 percent who believe they will go down and 18 percent who expect them to remain the same.

Reflecting a finding also reported last week by Gallup, the poll found that seniors opposed the reform measures being discussed by 59 percent to 33 percent, with 46 percent of those describing themselves as strongly opposed compared to 16 percent who say the strongly favor change.

Whatever their opinions, 47 percent believe a health care reform plan is not likely to pass this year, while 46 percent say it will, with 9 percent undecided.