Fox News Poll: Most See No Upside to Health Care Reforms

More Americans continue to oppose the health care reform legislation than support it, according to a Fox News poll released Friday. In addition, half favor banning the use of federal funds for abortions.

By 51 percent to 35 percent, the public opposes the reform legislation being considered right now by Congress. Last month, a majority opposed the health care legislation by a similar 54-35 percent (October 13-14, 2009).

While a majority of Democrats favor the reforms (65 percent), some 17 percent are opposed and another 18 percent are unsure. Most Republicans (82 percent) and a majority of independents (61 percent) oppose the legislation.

Seniors aged 65 and over oppose to the legislation by 56-30 percent, while voters under age 30 are slightly more likely to be in favor of it (45-41 percent).

Click here to see the poll.

Few Americans — one in six (16 percent) — think their family would be better off under the reforms. The rest split evenly between thinking they would be worse off (37 percent) and saying the reforms would not make much of a difference to their family (37 percent).

Those living in lower-income households (income less than $30,000) are twice as likely as those living in higher-income households (income $100,000 and over) to think their family would be better off under the health care reforms — 28 percent and 14 percent respectively.

Even so, roughly equal numbers of all income groups — between 36-40 percent — think the reforms would not make a real difference to their family.

Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for Fox News from November 17 to November 18. For the total sample, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Last week an amendment was added to the House health care bill that bans the use of federal funds to provide abortions. Overall, Americans favor the amendment by 50-38 percent. Not surprisingly, a 66 percent majority of pro-life voters favor the amendment, while a 53-percent majority of pro-choice voters oppose it.

Likewise, a majority of Americans think if an individual receives federal aid to purchase private health insurance, they should not be able to buy a plan that covers abortion (52-39 percent).

Currently, 47 percent of Americans say they are more "pro-life" and 44 percent are "pro-choice." Earlier this year it was 49 percent pro-life and 43 percent pro-choice (May 12-13, 2009). A larger number has typically identified as pro-choice than as pro-life in polling going back to 2004.

Click here for the raw data.