As the Senate pushes forward this week on health care reform, a new Quinnipiac survey finds a majority of voters do not favor the proposed changes to the health care system.

Fifty-three percent say they "mostly disapprove" the changes, and 56% say they don't want the system overhauled if it will increase the deficit -- 73% say it will do just that.

"While the Senate leadership reportedly has the votes to pass a health care overhaul plan this week, outside the Beltway there appears to be weak support, both to what voters understand as the plan, and the need to pass that plan now," said Quinnipiac assistant director Peter Brown.

A majority (56%) also disapproves of President Obama's handling of the issue, and the margin of voters who trust him more to handle health care than they do Republicans in Congress has shrunk.

"In July he enjoyed a 20-point edge on the trust question, and that margin has been narrowing, to 45 – 40 percent today," said Brown.

Interestingly, voters do approve of two options that were recently dropped from the Senate bill in order to win over moderate Democrats -- the public option (56% support it) and expansion of Medicare, which has 64% support.

The survey was conducted Dec. 15-20 of 1,616 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.4%.

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