Health-care reform getting more, not less, popular

I got an e-mail from the House minority leader's office this morning linking me to their new report, "Obamacare: Three Months of Broken Promises." "Three things are abundantly clear about President Obama’s new health care law three months after it became law," explained Michael Steel, a spokesperson for John Boehner. "First, the American people remain squarely opposed to it. Second, it is off to a rocky start, having failed to live up to specific promises made by President Obama and Washington Democrats. Third, Republicans have listened to the American people, heard the rising public backlash against the new law, and offered better solutions."

I haven't read the report closely yet, so I'll reserve comment on it. But by coincidence, I had been looking at some of the polling on health-care reform moments before the report landed in my inbox. A USA Today/Gallup poll that came out this morning showed that 49 percent of Americans think the Affordable Care Act is a "good thing," while 46 percent think it's a "bad thing."

This poll comes on the heels of an Associated Press-GfK poll showing the same movement. So that's two recent polls showing a lift in the bill's popularity, taking it from a slight plurality in opposition to a slight plurality in favor. Two polls is enough to make me curious, so I headed over to Pollster.com, and it does seem we're looking at a trend. The site's aggregate chart of recent polls doesn't yet show support overwhelming opposition, but it does show support rising and opposition falling. In fact, the bill's spread looks better than at any point in the past year. Check it out:

I'll take a longer look at Boehner's report later today, but it doesn't seem, at this point, that the American people "remain squarely opposed" to the bill, or that there's "a rising backlash." Public opinion remains mixed, and the trend is toward support, not opposition.