Support for Obamacare has hit a two-year high, despite the tax season surprises that followed the law this year.
According to a new Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released Tuesday, the percentage of people who say they support the healthcare law is greater than those who oppose it for the first time since the fall of 2012.
It’s not by much and the poll was careful to note that this result is within the margin of error, but 43 percent of poll respondents said they support the Affordable Care Act and 42 percent said they opposed it.
Support for the law peaked at 50 percent back in July 2010 in the Kaiser poll, The Hill noted, right after Obamacare was passed. The honeymoon lasted mere months.
The law’s favorability plummeted to 41 percent six months later, and opposition to the law reached 50 percent. The negative reaction to the law only grew stronger in November 2013 when the White House botched the rollout of Healthcare.gov, but Tuesday’s poll represents a small upswing in the opposite direction.
Opinions are still fiercely divided along party lines. Democrats are overwhelmingly in favor of the law and Republicans are just as strongly opposed to it.
But the slightly positive results for Obamacare have the Left cheering, especially since most other news about the law this month has not been positive.
Tax season brought along surprises for many ACA customers.
H&R Block, the world’s largest tax services provider, found that about 52 percent had to pay back their Obamacare subsidies — about $530, on average.
These subsidies caused a 17 percent drop in the average tax return.
There was also a knowledge gap for many when they filed their taxes. About half of uninsured adults didn’t know that they faced a fine for not having health insurance.
