A majority of Americans approve of the Supreme Court decision to continue allowing Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies in all states, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
The poll found that 62 percent of Americans support the King v. Burwell decision, while 32 percent disapprove.
The public’s approval of the King v. Burwell decision is higher than that of the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling, which also rejected a major challenge to the Obama-backed health care law. About half, 47 percent, approved and 43 percent disapproved of the ruling in that case, according to a Kaiser Health Tracking poll conducted in June 2012.
Despite the public’s largely favorable view of the court’s decision, opinions regarding the Affordable Care Act are divided, with 43 percent of Americans viewing the law favorably and 40 percent of Americans viewing the law unfavorably.
Of those who view the Affordable Care Act favorably, 91 percent support the King v. Burwell decision, compared with 30 percent of those who view the Affordable Care Act unfavorably.
In addition, the study found that Democrats and Independents were significantly more likely than Republicans to support the King v. Burwell decision.
Eighty-two percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Independents supported the decision as opposed to 29 percent of Republicans.
The study also found that a majority of Americans-- 78 percent -- believe that this decision will not be the end of the debate on health care. Roughly half of Americans, 51 percent, believe that it is important for the debate on health care to continue, while 44 percent say they are tired of hearing about the law and believe the government should be focused on other issues.
Overall, the study found that the case garnered little public attention. Immediately after the ruling, 39 percent say they’ve heard a lot or some about the case. However, a majority of Americans, 61 percent, say they have heard only a little about the case and 31percent report hearing nothing at all about it.
The poll was conducted from June 25-29, 2015 among a nationally representative random digit dial telephone sample of 1,202 adults. The margin of error was +/- 3 percentage points.