An Early Verdict: Gallup Respondents Support Health Care's Passage

An early verdict is in, from USA Today/Gallup: poll respondents said they support the passage of health care reform by the House of Representatives, by a margin of 49% to 40%.

Here are the numbers, based on telephone surveys of 1,005 national adults (no "likely voter" modeling) conducted on Monday, the day after health reform passed late Sunday night:

This stands in contrast to most national polling on health care, which shows Americans opposed to the health care plans being discussed in Washington, with pollsters phrasing that plan differently. Right now, Pollster.com's average shows 50.5% opposed and 41.5% in favor--and that's mostly in line with what polls have shown, on average, for the past few months leading up to this vote.

But polls have also shown that respondents wanted action, of some sort, on health care, even if they didn't like the Democrats' bills. 69% told CNN/Opinion Research Corp. in January that health care is an extremely or very important issue.

Democrats have gambled that 1) passing health care would be better for them than not, by virtue of getting something done, making good on a promise, and taking a major step to address a top concern, and 2) that health care reforms will become more popular after they're enacted.

On the first point, this one poll indicates that Democrats were right, at least in the immediate term.