Obamacare is such a thoroughly partisan issue that even when voters are asked about their own lives, they answer along party lines.
"How has Obamacare affected you?" is a question whose answer depends on your income, how you get health insurance, and a couple of other demographics. But how people think Obamacare has affected them depends instead on their politics, according to the latest tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
There has always been a stubborn partisan divide in public approval of Obamacare, and the latest Kaiser poll shows no change on that front.
But the survey indicates that even when describing real-world experiences — at a time when millions of people have gained access to coverage and millions have seen their plans canceled — voters still see those effects through a political lens.
A majority of all respondents (60 percent) and even a majority of Republicans (54 percent) said they had not been directly affected by the health care law.
But among those who said they had directly felt the effects of Obamacare, Democrats overwhelmingly said they had been helped, while Republicans overwhelmingly said they had been hurt.
Even after controlling for income and insurance status — the issues that actually determine who's affected, and how — politics still predicts whether people think they've been helped or hurt, Kaiser said.