Obama's health care law getting less popular

President Obama's health care overhaul is getting less popular as time goes on.

After a slight uptick in June and July, the law's popularity sank to 43% in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll this month, while 45% said they opposed it. Just last month, 50% of Americans favored the law in the same poll.

Only 39% of those polled said the law would make the country better off, down from 43% in July; 37% said it would make the country worse off, up from 35%.

The reason for the increased wrath: Republicans. Some 77% of them now oppose the law, up from 69% the past two months. Among Democrats, 68% favor the law, down from 73% in July.

The law's eroding popularity comes just weeks before some provisions take effect on Sept. 23 -- or, more often, upon insurance companies' new plan years, usually Jan. 1. Those provisions include some that Obama and Democrats in Congress intended as popular, such as letting otherwise uninsured children stay on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26.

It's been a while since the president had time to tout the law, what with the economy still in the tank and unemployment hovering near 10%. But you can expect him on the health care hustings around Sept. 23.

(Posted by Richard Wolf)