Voters Back Obama Over Republicans on Health Care, Poll Finds

Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Months of Republican attacks on President Barack Obama’s health-care proposals appear to have hurt the party, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

The survey found 64 percent of voters disapproving of the way Republicans in Congress are doing their jobs, with 25 percent approving. Also, 53 percent had an unfavorable opinion of the party in general, while 25 percent rated it favorably.

The performance of Democratic lawmakers was disapproved of by 56 percent, with 33 expressing approval. For the party in general, 46 percent expressed disapproval, 38 percent approval.

Asked who they trusted to do a better job on the health- care issue, 47 percent said Obama, 31 percent said the Republicans. The president’s overall approval rating was 50 percent, unchanged from a similar survey in late July and early August.

“President Barack Obama’s approval rating has held at 50 percent over the past two months of high-intensity debate on health care and other issues,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Hamden, Connecticut-based university’s polling institute. “And while the spotlight is on the president, Republicans are taking a public-opinion pounding.”

At the same time, voters disapproved of the way Obama was handling health care, 51 percent to 41 percent. His health-care plan was opposed by 47 percent, supported by 40 percent.

Public Option

The poll found voters support a government-run plan to compete with private insurers 61 percent to 34 percent. Obama backs creating such a program, which has been the focus of much of the health-care debate in Congress. House and Senate Democrats are divided over the proposal, known as the public option, while most Republicans oppose it.

The survey of 2,630 voters was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 5 and has an error margin of plus-or-minus 1.9 percentage points.

The intensity of the health-care debate was illustrated during Obama’s Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress on the subject when Representative Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, interrupted him with a call of “you lie.” Some Republicans also have accused Obama of proposing “death panels” to force senior citizens to end their lives sooner, a claim that the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Factcheck.org called “simply not true.”

The survey found voters support having businesses pay for employee health insurance, 73 percent to 23 percent. The poll respondents were more closely divided on whether Americans should be required to buy health insurance, as Obama wants. The proposal was backed by 50 percent, opposed by 45 percent.

Obama has said he won’t sign a health-care bill if it is projected to add to the federal budget deficit. In the poll, 71 percent said they expect any measure that emerges from Congress would increase the deficit, while 19 percent said they believe it wouldn’t.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated yesterday that the Senate Finance Committee’s version of health- care legislation would reduce the deficit by $81 billion over 10 years.

-- Editors: Don Frederick, Dave McCombs

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at +1-202-624-1832 or jsalant@bloomberg.net .