Poll: Obama's approval ratings drop after flawed healthcare rollout

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The faulty rollout of the Affordable Care Act pushed President Obama to the lowest approval rating of his presidency, a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicated.

Opposition to the new healthcare law also hit a record high, with 57 percent of respondents voicing their opposition to the initiative, results released Tuesday indicated.

Disapproval of Obama's handling of the healthcare law's rollout was 63 percent.

By an almost 2-to-1 margin, Americans oppose the individual mandate, results said. Because of the problems with the launch of healthcare.gov, the federal health insurance exchange, seven in 10 of those asked said individual mandate should be delayed.

The poll indicated almost six in 10 support the provision requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance or face a financial penalty.

The Washington Post-ABC survey showed respondents, by a 52 percent-to-44 percent margin, said they think Obama told people what he thought was correct at the time when he said if people who liked their policies could keep them. The administration also has come under fire after reports of policy cancellation notices being mailed surfaced.

Respondents were nearly evenly split over whether the Affordable Care Act could be fixed.

Obama's overall approval rating fell to 42 percent, dropping 6 percentage points in a month, and equals his record low in Post-ABC polls. His disapproval rating was 55 percent, the worst of his presidency.

For the first time in Obama's presidency, poll results indicated 52 percent said they have an unfavorable impression of him, while 46 percent said they view him favorably.

Results are based on a national telephone survey of 1,006 adults conducted Thursday through Saturday. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.