Last Friday U.S. House leaders outlined a $1 trillion health care overhaul that would provide insurance for more Americans and give them new rights in dealing with insurers. The reform plan could ultimately lead to coverage for 95 percent of Americans and create a new government-run insurance program.

President Obama has made health reform a priority and has said that continuing with the status quo will bankrupt the country. The reform bills promise more affordable insurance and relief to those with large out-of-pocket health costs. But high-income people and some businesses would face new taxes.

How do Americans feel about the legislation?

A USA Today/Gallup poll finds 56% of Americans in favor and 33% opposed to Congress’ passing major healthcare reform legislation this year. However, support is sharply split along party lines, with 79% of Democrats in favor, compared with only 23% of Republicans. President Obama urged Democratic senators to keep trying for a bipartisan deal on health care reform, but left open the possibility that they might have to pass a bill without Republican support.

We used Social Radar analytics to measure sentiment around health reform. Social Radar analyzed billions of online messages and provided in-depth analysis specific to references of health reform as the subject of conversation to get key sentimental insights of the masses. Overall results show 56% of health reform references were positive, mirroring the Gallup poll results.

We further analyzed these conversations throughout the month of July to determine key topics discussed, and in what context. The word cloud below displays these key topics used in health care reform conversations online, with colors from green to red representing positive/neutral/negative tone of each topic.

There certainly appears to be some negativity around this plan directed toward Obama, tax and cost.

The chart below displays the data in another way, showing a trend of the sentiment/tone and total conversation volume around health care reform over the last month.

As the conversations continue to grow, we are starting to see a slight increase in negative tone. We will be keeping an eye on this topic as the Obama administration works toward achieving major health reform this year.