82% of Americans Oppose Health Care Mandate

  • By: FW Staff
  • 09/14/2011

A new poll finds President Obama’s health care mandate is so unpopular, it gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. 

More than 8 in 10 people surveyed – 82 percent – say the federal government should not have the power to require Americans to buy health insurance. 

  • 95 percent of Republicans oppose the mandate. 
  • 87 percent of politically important independents agree.

Meanwhile, three federal district judges have found the mandate unconstitutional. So has a federal appeals court. So might the Supreme Court.

All of which should greatly concern anyone who supports the President’s health care law. The individual mandate is that law’s linchpin: repeal it, and the whole thing unravels. 

The poll of 1,000 adults, conducted Aug. 18-22, 2011, was released September 13 by the Associated Press and the National Constitution Center.

The public’s view is captured nicely by Daisy Mallory, a 78-year-old retired factory worker in La Grange, Illinois: 

“I just think that people should have the right to buy health insurance, or not.” 

 

Dean Clancy is FreedomWorks’ Legislative Counsel and Vice President, Health Care Policy

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