The Hill News

Public support for healthcare reform ticked downward in October, suffering from an especially negative opinion among likely voters.

Almost half of likely voters in next month's elections said they have an unfavorable view of Democrats' signature legislation -- a more negative take on health reform than the general public.

Forty-nine percent of likely voters said they have an unfavorable opinion of the healthcare bill, according to the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, compared to 39 percent who have a favorable opinion. Twelve percent of likely voters have no opinion.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has been keeping tabs monthly on the public's approval for the legislation since President Obama signed it into law in March. The October poll lends the first real insight into how likely voters view the l! egislation, since previous iterations had tended to only track its general popularity.

Indeed, the bill's favorability with the general public did dip in October after ticking upward in September. Forty-two percent of U.S. adults say they favor the legislation, while 44 percent have an unfavorable opinion of it. (Americans approved of the bill, 49-40 percent, in September.)

The poll also found that support for repealing the legislation was just slightly higher among registered voters than amongst the general public. 31 percent of registered voters said the law should be repealed as soon as possible, while 28 percent of U.S. adults said the same.

The! poll, conducted Oct. 5-10, has a three percent margin of erro! r for th e general public and a three percent margin of error for registered voters.