The November Kaiser Health Tracking Poll shows that President Obama’s health care overhaul has now hit a lower level of popularity than at any previous time in his presidency. Kaiser writes, “Just a quarter of the public (25 percent) now says they expect their own families to be better off under the health reform law, which is the lowest share since KFF [Kaiser Family Foundation] began tracking this question.” Kaiser notes that it began tracking the question in February of 2009, just weeks after President Obama’s inauguration. 

The survey also confirms that “health care voters” were central to the Republicans’ overwhelming victory in the midterms. Such voters – defined by Kaiser as “those who named health care or health care reform as one of the top two factors in deciding their vote for Congress” – overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates, with nearly six in ten (59 percent) backing the GOP.