Public Worries About Deficit, Costs Due to Health Care Overhaul

Sixty-one percent of Americans believe the federal deficit will get worse, 55 percent predict the overall cost of health care will worsen, and 50 percent believe that will be true, too, for their own families' costs as a result of the health care overhaul, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28.

The negatives clearly outweighed the positives when Gallup asked whether 10 things would get better, worse or remain the same because of the legislation. None of the 10 measures reached the 50 percent mark in terms of things that Americans thought would improve.

The top two areas where the public thought things would get better were health care coverage in the United States (44 percent) and the overall health of Americans (40 percent). But when it came to asking respondents how the health care measure would affect their own family's overall health, 58 percent predicted there would be no change while roughly equal numbers said there would be change for the better or worse.

Forty-two percent predicted the legislation would have no impact on the quality of care they and their families received, while 35 percent said it would get worse and 24 percent said it would get better.

Follow Poll Watch on Twitter