A plurality of Americans identifying as Independents hold an unfavorable view of Obamacare two months after the Supreme Court upheld a key element of the president’s championed health care law.
A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released Thursday indicates that 46 percent of independents view the Affordable Care Act unfavorably, while only 39 percent have a favorable view of the health care law.
Not only are Independent voters dissatisfied with the law, but they are also most likely to support a full repeal of Obamacare by Congress. Twenty-eight percent of these Americans support a complete repeal of the law, while 17 percent are in favor of scaling back what it does for health care in the country. Twenty-five percent of Independents would like to see Congress expand the law.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats are most likely to support expanding the Affordable Care Act (44 percent do), though a small share—6 percent—support a repeal of Obamacare by Congress. Among Republicans, support for repeal is strong, with a majority of GOP voters—57 percent—calling for it.
Republicans are also largely united in their disapproval of the law, as 71 percent view it unfavorably; among Democrats, on the other hand, Obamacare receives a 76 percent approval rating.
The poll comes a month after news broke that approximately 6.6 million U.S. taxpayers paid a penalty for not having health insurance imposed this year under Obamacare. The figure exceeded the Obama administration’s initial estimate by 10 percent, indicating that Americans were more likely than predicted to prefer a fine over paying for Obamacare.
Health care spending saw a notable increase in 2014 because of the Affordable Care Act, growing by 5.5 percent to $3.1 trillion–or $9,695 per person, on average–according to a report published by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Office of the Actuary (OACT) earlier this month.