MENLO PARK, CA – According to the July Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, the public still supports taking action on health reform, though criticism and doubts are surfacing.

"The public wants help with their healthcare bills and supports health reform, but the hotter the debate and the longer it lasts, the more anxious the public will become," said Kaiser President and CEO Drew Altman.

As has been the case over the past 10 months, a majority of the American people (56 percent) believe health reform is more important than ever, despite the country's economic problems. And by a 2-to-1 margin (51 percent vs. 23 percent), those surveyed believe the country will be better off rather than worse off if Congress and the president enact health reform.

More Americans think they and their families will be better off (39 percent) than worse off (21 percent) if legislation passes, with 32 percent believing it will make no difference for them or their families.

But with health reform moving from the abstract to concrete legislative proposals, criticisms made during the policy debate are having an impact. A larger share of the public is worried that Congress and the president will pass a bill that’s bad for their family (54 percent) than are worried that healthcare reform will not happen this year (39 percent).

While a majority of the public favors healthcare reform now, that number is down 5 percent since June (from 61 percent to 56 percent). Those who feel healthcare reform will make things worse for their own families has doubled since February (from 11 percent to 21 percent), as has the proportion who say the country would be worse off if healthcare reform passed (from 12 percent to 23 percent).

TRhere is also a weakeneing of support for specific proposals to cover the uninsured. For example, support for an employer mandate fell from 69 percent to 64 percent since June, and those who "strongly" favor the idea fell from 42 percent to 29 percent.

Financing health reform is front and center in the debate. Roughly half of those surveyed are willing to pay more for expanding health coverage – up 10 percent from June. And some revenue measures have strong support – taxing cigarettes, Americans earning more than $250,000 annually and alcohol, beer and wine all have greater than 60 percent support. However, consistent with the overall pattern, support for revenue measures has softened across the board, with a portion of those surveyed shifting from "strongly" to "somewhat" supportive.