Polls Agree: Americans Still Deeply Divided About Health Care Reform

But, in the CNN/ORC International poll, respondents are told that the law "included a provision that will require all Americans who do not have health insurance to get it." They were then told that the Court "ruled that provision of the health care law is constitutional, allowing nearly all of the proposals in the health care law to take effect."

The CNN poll also finds Americans split on the mandate: 48 percent favor it, while 51 percent oppose it. But here, too, the wording of the question is important. Other surveys ask about the mandate in a way that includes language about a fine or penalty (or, perhaps in coming polls, a "tax") on those individuals who do not obtain insurance. For example, nearly two-thirds of Americans thought that "the federal government should not be able to require all Americans to obtain health insurance or else pay a fine," according to a United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll conducted in March of this year.

The CNN/ORC International poll contains no such language, asking respondents only if they favor or oppose "the provision in that law that will require all Americans who do not have health insurance to get it." Had the poll included language about a fine or penalty before the initial question about the Court's decision, it is possible that there may have been iminished support for the ruling. The poll did ask, after the question about the mandate, if respondents consider it "a tax on Americans," and three in five said they did consider it a tax.

More than half of respondents in the Kaiser poll -- 56 percent -- said that opponents should "stop their efforts to block the law and move on to other national problems." That appears to be the strategy the Obama administration has embraced. Republicans, however, are fighting on. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has scheduled another symbolic repeal vote for next week.

The CNN/ORC International poll was conducted June 28-July 1. The poll surveyed 1,517 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

The Kaiser Family Foundation poll was conducted June 28-30, surveying 1,239 adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. The foundation conducts a monthly survey of Americans' attitudes on health care issues.

The Gallup/USA Today poll was conducted on June 28, the evening of the decision. That poll surveyed 1,012 adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Polls conducted entirely in one day "are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days," according to Gallup.

The Pew Research Center poll was conducted between June 28 and July 1, and surveyed 1,006 adults in the United States. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 3.6 percentage points on general questions; plus or minus about 6.5 percentage points for political subgroups.

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