Just 33% Back Pro-Abortion Obamacare as Supreme Court Decides

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jun 22, 2012   |   11:17AM   |   Washington, DC

With the Supreme Court expected to issue its landmark ruling in the Obamacare case next week, polling data reveals just one-third of Americans support the controversial health care law.

“The Supreme Court is likely to release its landmark decision on the constitutionality of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act within the next week. Americans show at best mixed support for the law and widely view the individual mandate that requires Americans to have health insurance as unconstitutional,” a new Gallup analysis indicates. “Although President Obama and his supporters predicted that Americans would become more positive about the law after it passed and they had time to better understand it, that has not been the case. Americans appear as negative or more negative now than they were when the PPACA was first passed.”

While the high court may take one of several approaches to the law — with most observers expecting either a full repeal, partial repeal or a repeal of the individual mandate — there is little doubt that Americans oppose the law and want it changed.

Gallup noted a Kaiser Foundation poll showed Americans were more unfavorable than favorable toward the law by a 44% to 37% margin. A new June 14-18 AP/GfK poll found 47% opposed to the law, while 33% were in favor.

Gallup’s own polling data found 72% say the individual mandate is unconstitutional, while 20% consider it constitutional. The vast majority of Republicans (94%) and opponents of the healthcare law (94%) say the provision is unconstitutional, but so do the majority of Democrats (56%) and those who broadly favor the law (54%).

The polling data finds a partisan split on Obamacare that will likely continue after the decision and form the basis for the differences of opinion that will be seen in the general election matchup between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama.

“Regardless of the content of the Supreme Court decision, it is almost certain that Republicans and Democrats will have very different reactions to it. Gallup polling on the topic shows Republicans have overwhelmingly negative views of the healthcare law, and Democrats, overwhelmingly positive. Specifically, 71% of Democrats said it was a good thing the law passed and 81% of Republicans said it was a bad thing in Gallup’s most recent update. Independents’ views have been more variable, though more often than not they have tilted toward opposing it,” Gallup noted.

It continued: “A majority of Republicans, 68%, also believe the healthcare law will make the healthcare situation in their family worse in the future if all of its provisions go into effect. Democrats are more divided in their views as to whether it would make things better (40%) or not make much difference (43%).”

The decision could have a huge impact on the abortion-funding components of Obamacare.

Nestled within the “individual mandate” in the Obamacare act — that portion of the Act requiring every American to purchase government — approved insurance or pay a penalty — is an “abortion premium mandate.” This mandate requires all persons enrolled in insurance plans that include elective abortion coverage to pay a separate premium from their own pockets to fund abortion.  As a result, many pro-life Americans will have to decide between a plan that violates their consciences by funding abortion, or a plan that may not meet their health needs.

The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a final rule regarding establishment of the state health care exchanges required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

As a knowledgeable pro-life source on Capitol Hill informed LifeNews, as authorized by Obamacare, “The final rule provides for taxpayer funding of insurance coverage that includes elective abortion” and the change to longstanding law prohibiting virtually all direct taxpayer funding of abortions (the Hyde Amendment) is accomplished through an accounting arrangement described in the Affordable Care Act and reiterated in the final rule issued.

“To comply with the accounting requirement, plans will collect a $1 abortion surcharge from each premium payer,” the pro-life source informed LifeNews. “The enrollee will make two payments, $1 per month for abortion and another payment for the rest of the services covered. As described in the rule, the surcharge can only be disclosed to the enrollee at the time of enrollment.  Furthermore, insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without disclosing that enrollees will be charged a $1 per month fee to pay to directly subsidize abortions.”

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The pro-life advocate told LifeNews that the final HHS rule mentions, but does not address concerns about abortion coverage in “multi-state” plans administered by the Federal Government’s Office of Personell Management (OPM).

“There is nothing in the Affordable Care Act to prevent some OPM (government administered) plans from covering elective abortion, and questions remain about whether OPM multi-state plans will include elective abortion,” the pro-life source said. “If such plans do include abortion, there are concerns that the abortion coverage will even be offered in states that have prohibited abortion coverage in their state exchanges.”

The final rule indicates: “Specific standards for multi-state plans will be described in future rulemaking published by OPM…”

Set to go into effect in 2014, the unconstitutional provisions found in Section 1303 of the Obamacare Act compel enrollees in certain health plans to pay a separate abortion premium from their own pocket, without the ability to decline abortion coverage based on religious or moral objection.