Poll: Americans less wary of health care reform effect

WASHINGTON - With President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in limbo, Americans' fears about its effect on them eased in January, according to a poll released as the president tries to revive sweeping Democratic legislation.

The monthly poll from the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropic and research organization that supports health care reform, also found that three-fourths of Americans still think it's important that Obama include health care reform in addressing the nation's economic crisis, even if many have misgivings.

The poll found that the proportion of Americans who said they feared their access to health care would get worse under the Democratic plans dropped to 29 percent, from 33 percent who had expressed such concerns in December.

On other measures, pessimists tended to outnumber optimists on health care overhaul. Nearly 31 percent said they thought the Democratic bills would make their personal financial situation worse, compared with 10 percent who said it would improve their budgets.

Americans were divided on whether the Democrats' approach would improve overall access to health care, with 35 percent saying it would, and nearly that many disagreeing.