On Friday, NPR's Julie Rovner bemoaned the "crummy month for sentiment" about ObamaCare in an online report about the latest poll from the liberal Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that over 50% oppose the liberal law. Rovner also labeled Romney's Massachusetts health care law his "landmark achievement."
The correspondent lead her NPR.org item, "Democrats Lose Enthusiasm For Health Law," by seemingly downplaying the poll results and using her "crummy" label: "Sure, it's just one poll of many, but October marks a crummy month for sentiment about the federal Affordable Care Act." She continued by noting that "more than half of those polled...had an unfavorable view of the measure overhauling health care. Only 34 percent said they viewed the law favorably, a post-passage low."
Rovner then explained that "both those numbers were due primarily to waning support among Democrats, who, until now, have been highly supportive of the measure....slightly more than half of Democrats (52 percent) still say they have a favorable view of the law...down 13 percentage points from 65 in Sept." She quoted from Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman, who stated that "the public is in a sour mood, including Democrats who drove this month's more negative views....I doubt underlying views about the ACA have really shifted much, but the public's mood has shifted."
Later in her report, the NPR journalist highlighted poll results about Romney's law, which he signed during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts:
...[D]espite the heated debate among the Republican presidential candidates about whether...Romney's health plan was or was not the foundation for the federal health law, it appears neither Republicans nor Democrats have much of a clue when it comes to that state's novel law. Massachusetts in 2006 became the first in the nation to require most people to either have insurance or pay a tax penalty.
Yet three-quarters of Democrats and 70 percent of Republicans said they didn't know enough about the Massachusetts law to express a favorable or unfavorable view of it. Similar majorities said they didn't know enough to say if the Massachusetts law is working well, or whether it's similar or different from the federal measure.
Rovner added that "there is some slightly bad news for Romney, however. Of the Republicans who did express views on his landmark achievement, only three percent said they had a favorable view, compared to 23 percent who view it unfavorably."
On August 30, the NPR correspondent used the Kaiser Family Foundation's tracking poll from that month as her sole source for a report that promoted the supposed benefits of ObamaCare, and bewailed that only half know that the law "includes key provisions that will make insurance more available and affordable." Her network also has a joint partnership with the liberal organization, along with the Harvard School of Public Health, "whose goal is to better understand public opinion on a range of health-related issues facing the nation."
