Poll: Health reform largely a non-issue in eyes of voters

By Mike Lillis - 09/16/10 06:06 PM ET

The new health reform law will have little influence over voters' choices when they hit the polls in November, according to new survey results released Thursday.

Forty-one percent of respondents said a lawmaker's vote on the reform law would "not make much difference" in choosing a candidate, according to the CBS News/New York Times survey.

Furthermore, the percentage of voters (28 percent) saying they're "more likely" to choose a member who supported the reforms is precisely the same as those who said they'd be "less likely" to pick that candidate — a wash suggesting a certain futility in both party's efforts to use the law to their advantage in November's midterms.

Among other key findings:

• Just 3 percent of respondents said healthcare is the most pressing problem facing the country.

• Of those who said they're "angry" with Washington, 7 percent indicated that healthcare reform is the leading cause — down from 14 percent in April, just after the law was enacted.

• 37 percent of voters said they approve of the new healthcare law, while 49 percent said they disapprove.

The survey was conducted between Sept. 10 and 14.