In the early hours of Friday, July 28, 2017, the U.S. Senate repeals and replaces the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after rejecting a replacement bill previously passed by the House of Representatives. The argument to be replaced is closed.
Analysis of 27 national opinion polls conducted by 12 survey institutions provides background on four important issues related to health care decision-making in the past and recent Senate: People’s perceptions of current law. Favorability, the underlying public values of debate about the future, support for various health policy changes suggested by Republican legislation, and support for the overall Republican legislation debated in the House and Senate. .
The poll results, which provide a glimpse into the public’s view of the ACA, differed somewhat during the various survey periods, so we looked at the average of recent polls. According to the average of the opinion polls conducted in June and July 2017, the public is divided in the ACA evaluation, but is more in favor of the ACA (49% vs. 44%). Public opinion in favor of ACA increased by 5% between 2012 and 2017 .
The Republican leader’s view that much of the Congressional debate over the need to repeal and replace the ACA (Obama Care) directly harms many people and directly benefits many people, so the ACA should be maintained, focusing on the position of Democrat leaders has been None of these positions reflect the general public’s view as a whole .
As shown in Figure 1, the number of people who believe it is the responsibility of the federal government to provide universal health insurance benefits has increased from 42% in 2013 to 60% as of June 2017.
Public views of general principles often differ from those of specific policy proposals. When we look at the specifics of the Republican alternative legislation, we see a slightly different form of public opinion. In both the House and Senate, the Republican replacement legislation shows seven types of change .
Republicans and Democrats among the people show very different differences in almost every element of Republican repeal-and-replace legislation. A majority of the population did not like the change in the ACA law because it would provide financial assistance to fewer people to purchase health insurance or reduce the number of people eligible for Medicaid benefits. The majority of people preferred to keep the number of people covered by Medicaid the same (72%), while 22% wanted to reduce government spending and taxes by reducing the number of people eligible for Medicaid to pre-ACA levels. On the issue of removing the ACA Act’s requirement for people to receive health insurance benefits or pay fines, opinions were divided overall. 48% wanted to remove this requirement, while 50% were against it. In late 2016, before the debate in the parliament, only 35% of the people were in favor of compulsory private health insurance. On the issue of removing federal health insurance regulatory protections for people with underlying medical conditions, less than a quarter of the population (24%) said insurers should charge higher premiums for people with underlying medical conditions.
Overall, about a quarter of the population (24%) agreed with Republicans to repeal and replace the ACA, while 56% opposed it. In the eyes of public opinion, the Republican plan was a very unpopular alternative legislation. When Medicare was first enacted in 1964, 61% of the people supported Medicare. Support for the ACA is relatively low, but as shown in Table 1, the approval rate reached 49% in June/July this year from 42% at the time of its enactment.
A fundamental division within the Republican Party shows that it is difficult for Republicans in Congress to agree to a single repeal-and-replace bill. The fact that US President Donald Trump’s role in the ACA debate is not well received by the public and the president’s health care policy is only at 28% doesn’t help this division.