The fight over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in Washington is as fierce as ever, with a Republican budget plan that would repeal the health care law Democrats passed five years ago. In the rest of the country, opposition to the law appears to be easing.
The gap between favorable and unfavorable views of PPACA is the narrowest in more than two years, according to a poll released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The poll of 1,503 U.S. adults found 43 percent opposed to PPACA and 41 percent in favor. With a margin of sampling error of plus and minus 3 percentage points, the result was essentially an even split. Those in favor most often cited expanded access to insurance, while opponents cited cost.
Negative views of the law increased in the months after October 2013, when the sign-up website healthcare.gov and some state insurance marketplaces were crippled by technology failures. Now, the government reports that some 16.4 million Americans have gained insurance coverage under the law.