By Rebecca Adams, CQ Roll Call
About 62 percent of people surveyed by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said that if the Supreme Court strikes down tax credit subsidies in the federal health law marketplace, it would have a negative effective on the country, according to the recent poll.
The subsidies are at the heart of a case, King v. Burwell, that justices are expected to decide later this year.
Some 69 percent of respondents said that if the court eliminates subsidies in states that didn't set up their own insurance marketplace, those states should create their own exchanges. Another 23 percent said states should not act while 8 percent said they did not know.
The high bipartisan support for subsidies contrasts with the public's overall opinion of the health law. About 43 percent of the people polled from March 6 through March 12 opposed the law while 41 percent viewed it favorably.
The difference is the slimmest in two years. The opposition is lower than last July, when 53 percent of the people surveyed did not support the law and 37 percent did.
About 81 percent of participants knew that the health law requires most Americans to get coverage or face a fine. But only 53 percent knew that the tax filing season that ends next month is the first time that people have to report whether they have insurance.
The foundation asked questions of 1,503 adults. Questions that were asked of everyone had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.