Health reform: A winner or loser in 2012?

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Because of President Obama's health care overhaul, 2.5 million more young adults have health insurance coverage, according to a new analysis the administration released today.

Much of the president's health care overhaul, passed in 2010, won't go into effect until 2014. Still, the law is sure to be a hot topic in the 2012 election, and Mr. Obama is likely to use specific data like this to make the case he deserves re-election. Polls continue to show that the health care law is controversial, but reports like this could help the president make his case.

Since September of last year, young adults under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents' insurance plans because of the reforms. The measure has benefited more young people than expected, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department said the change could be attributed to the health care overhaul by showing that coverage among adults ages 26 to 35 remained relatively steady. Furthermore, there were no changes in Medicaid coverage among young people.

"More young adults in this country can now go on and live their lives with less worry about visiting their doctor when they get sick, or incurring catastrophic medical bills if they are in an accident," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a White House blog post. "And for us parents, this lets us breathe a sigh of relief."

A new NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll shows reveals how strongly the nation feels about the president's health care overhaul -- and how divided they are. Eleven percent called the health care law Mr. Obama's biggest accomplishment, but another 13 percent named the health care law as his biggest failure.

A CBS News poll conducted earlier this month showed that as many as 51 percent disapprove of the law, while just 35 percent approve.

However, polls about individual provisions of the bill show that many elements of the law are popular -- including the measure allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance. In a June 2010 poll from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, 71 percent said they had a favorable opinion of that provision, with 47 percent saying they had a "very favorable" opinion of it.

Liberal supporters of the health care overhaul point out that Republicans have been reluctant to criticize the provision allowing young adults to keep their parents' coverage even as they call for the repeal of the health care overhaul.

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic previewed how support for this provision could be used to defend the president's health care policies, asking, "Are young adults more deserving of coverage than older ones? Why are the Republicans so willing to jettison other provisions - like, say, the tax credits for working-class Americans who can't afford coverage on their own, the prohibitions against denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, and so forth?"

Mr. Obama's re-election campaign will surely seek to focus on good news like today's data, but the course of the debate may be out of their hands. The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over the health law next spring means the focus next year could fall mostly on the mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance -- which, according to the 2010 Kaiser poll, is one of the law's most unpopular provisions.