Ruling boosts support for Obama healthcare reform_美文

Ruling boosts support for Obama healthcare reform

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Voter support for President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul rose after the US Supreme Court upheld it but most people still oppose the law, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday.

The online survey showed increased backing from Republicans and, crucially, the political independents whose support will be essential to winning the Nov 6 presidential election.

Thirty-eight percent of independents support the healthcare overhaul in the poll conducted after the court ruled on Thursday the law was constitutional. That was up from 27 percent from a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken days before the justices' ruling.

Among all registered voters, support for the law rose to 48 percent, from 43 percent before the court decision.

Republican opposition to the law stayed strong, if somewhat weaker than before the high court ruled. Eighty-one percent of Republicans opposed it in the most recent survey, down from 86 percent in the poll conducted June 19 to 23.

Underscoring the intense polarization on the issue, three-quarters of Democrats backed the bill, the same as a week earlier.

In the new poll, more than half of all registered voters - 53 percent - said they were more likely to vote for their member of Congress if he were running on a platform of repealing the law, up from 46 percent before the ruling.

Obama's Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, has made it clear that he will run against "Obamacare". Within hours of the Supreme Court's ruling, the former Massachusetts governor asked voters to throw Obama out of office to get rid of the law, which he promises to repeal and replace if he wins the White House in November.