A Star Tribune Minnesota Poll published Sunday found that support for President Barack Obama has slipped in the state, though he still has the backing of a slim majority.

Overall, 51 percent of respondents approved of Obama’s performance compared to 62 percent in the last Minnesota Poll in April. He fared even worse on health care, with just 39 percent saying they approved of his handling of the issue as Congress works on a package of reforms. That’s compared to 45 percent who disapproved.

Still, a slim majority also said they support both a new government health insurance plan and a law requiring all Americans to have health insurance. The poll found 51 percent supported the so-called public option favored by Democrats, while 37 percent opposed it; and, 54 percent favored mandatory insurance while 37 percent were opposed.

The poll findings are based on a Sept. 21-24 telephone survey of 1,000 adults. It did not include cell phone users. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

“If you’re talking about reforming health care, you have to have health care for everybody,” poll respondent Carol Lammers, 44, a communications consultant and political independent from Rochester, told the newspaper. “Otherwise we’re not reforming — we’re just tweaking what we have.”

But Obama faces skepticism as the congressional debate enters a critical phase. Republican Robert Jackson, 75, a 3M retiree in Eden Prairie, said he wasn’t willing to make the tradeoffs that might be required for government to grant wider access to health care.

“They say, well, Sweden takes care of everybody. Yeah, and their tax rate is something like 60 percent or something like that,” Jackson said.

The poll found Obama’s drop in the state was most pronounced among independents, men, middle- and low-income workers, residents of greater Minnesota, and people who have not attended college.