Younger Americans’ view of Obamacare improves a bit; Latinos still split

WASHINGTON – As the deadline approaches for enrolling in Obamacare health coverage this year, younger Americans have warmed somewhat to the president’s health care law, but Latinos remain closely split over it.

Those findings from a large-scale Pew Research Center survey provide a glimpse at two groups that are major targets of the Obama administration’s push to get people to sign up before the March 31 deadline.

The administration had originally hoped to get about 7 million people to sign up for coverage in the first year but lowered its expectations after the disastrous rollout last fall of the HealthCare.gov website. Enrollments now appear to be on track to end up somewhat more than 6 million.

Opinion about the Affordable Care Act soured among Latinos during the fall and has not recovered, the new Pew poll found. Latinos in the current survey were evenly divided, with 47 percent approving of the law and 47 percent disapproving.

By contrast, Americans younger than 30, who also grew more negative during the fall, now appear to have grown somewhat more accepting of the law. Among Americans ages 18 through 29, 50 percent say they approve of it and 47 percent oppose.

By contrast, among all Americans, disapproval still prevails, with 41 percent favoring the law and 53 percent opposed.

Overall feelings toward the law have not changed in many months, but the public’s sense of what political figures should do about it have shifted. Now that the law has taken effect, a majority of those who dislike it want to see public officials do what they can to make it work.