Slim majority of Americans say healthcare not govt responsibility: Gallup

For the third consecutive year, 52 percent of Americans say they do not believe it is the federal government's responsibility to ensure healthcare coverage for all Americans, a Gallup poll released Thursday found.

The sentiment may be a backlash against President Barack Obama' s healthcare overhaul, as a majority of Americans took the opposite view prior to his election, Gallup said.

Gallup first asked this question in the year 2000, when 59 percent of Americans said it was the federal government's responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare, a sentiment that peaked at 69 percent in 2006, according to Gallup.

Those attitudes are significant, as Republicans earlier this month regained control of Congress in a major GOP sweep not seen since World War II. Republicans have long said they would repeal Obama's landmark but controversial healthcare overhaul, also known as Obamacare, a law that critics contend unfairly forces the middle class to pay for healthcare for lower income individuals, among myriad other complaints with the law.

While Obama would veto any Congressional challenge to his historical legislation, 2016 could see a repeal of the law if a Republican president is elected.

Americans' attitudes began to shift in the 2008 poll, conducted just after Obama was elected, and became evenly divided after Obama took office in 2009. During this time, Republicans and independents became more likely to say universal healthcare was not the government's responsibility, likely in reaction to Obama's campaign promise to provide healthcare for all Americans.

The view that government should not be involved became more pronounced in 2012 and has been the majority opinion in the U.S. over the past three years, Gallup found.

While seven in 10 Democrats and those leaning Democratic agree that providing healthcare coverage to all is the federal government's job, three-quarters of Republicans and those leaning Republican disagree, Gallup said.

The federal government's role in ensuring healthcare for all of its citizens is at the heart of the political controversy over Obamacare, given that it forces individuals to participate in the system whether they want to or not.

Views of the law are themselves highly partisan, making it no surprise that 79 percent of those who approve of the law also say it is the government's responsibility to ensure universal healthcare, while 76 percent of those who disapprove of the law say the opposite, according to Gallup.