From NBC's Mark Murray
As the political world waits on the returns from the special Senate election in Massachusetts, one of the big issues in the race -- the health care debate -- has increasingly become a liability for the Obama White House and the Democratic Party, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

In the survey, only 33 percent say President Obama's health-reform effort is a good idea, versus 46 percent who consider it a bad idea.

That result is essentially unchanged from last month's poll. However, the number saying that Obama's health plan is a bad idea has increased 20 percentage points since April, when the public supported the reform effort by a 33-26 percent margin.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Jan. 10-14, and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.

The full survey comes out later this afternoon.