Public’s PPACA positions harden

In mid-October, 50 percent of the participants said they wanted Congress to repeal the law or scale it back, and 38 percent said they wanted to Congress to expand the law or keep it as is. Thirteen percent had no opinion.

Two years ago, 57 percent called for repealing or pruning the law, and 37 percent call for maintaining or expanding it. At that point, only 7 percent had no opinion.

Although the levels of support for the law and opposition to it held steady since October, the gap between Democrats and Republicans may have expanded: Swift writes in a commentary on the data that Democrats are now much more likely to want Congress to expand the law, while Republicans are somewhat more likely to back repeal.

Independents are less likely to favor repeal than they were in October and more likely to want Congress to change or expand PPACA.

Given how steady Americans’ positions have been, “it is unclear whether they will budge in the months to come,” Swift writes.

The margin of error for the surveys is 4 percentage points.

See also:

• Uninsureds ready to pay penalty
• HHS exchanges seem short on platinum
• States to decide which plans are PPACA-compliant