The Affordable Care Act Is More Popular Than Ever

Despite Americans’ record-breaking support for the Affordable Care Act, Trump and Republicans continue to take actions to undermine health care coverage that Americans rely on.

 

While Republicans continue to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, support for the law is at an all-time high.

 

The Hill: “The favorable rating for ObamaCare has reached its highest level since the law was enacted in 2010, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) poll. The poll finds that 54 percent of the public has a favorable view of the law, compared to 42 percent who have an unfavorable view. That is the highest favorable rating in a KFF poll since it began asking the question in 2010. The rise is driven by independents, the KFF found, with 55 percent now having a favorable view of the law, a significant jump from 48 percent last month.”

 

Despite Americans’ support for the Affordable Care Act, Republicans’ continued efforts to sabotage the law will result in higher premiums and more uninsured Americans.

 

The Hill: “ObamaCare premiums will rise an average of 18.2 percent next year due to GOP-backed changes to the health law, according to a study from the left-leaning Urban Institute released Monday. The study finds that the combination of repealing ObamaCare’s individual mandate and expanding access to cheaper, skimpier health insurance policies known as short-term plans will lead to the premium increase … The study also finds that 6.4 million more people will be uninsured next year due to the repeal of the mandate to have health insurance or pay a fine, in addition to other smaller changes like cutting federal investments in outreach.”

 

Republicans’ health care sabotage will largely come at the expense of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.

 

Washington Post Editorial: “For months, health-care experts have been warily watching the Department of Health and Human Services, waiting to see whether the Trump administration would accelerate its reckless campaign to dismantle Obamacare. Last week, they got their answer: The department proposed a disastrous rule that would promote even more turmoil in health insurance markets and harm some extremely vulnerable people. The department’s plan would allow insurance companies to sell virtually unregulated health policies. This would signal a return to the bad old days when insurers could sharply limit benefits, impose caps on coverage and discriminate against people with preexisting conditions.”

 

Even as 74% of Americans view Medicaid favorably, the Trump administration is seeking to diminish access to the program and drastically slash its funding.

 

KFF Poll: “But a whopping 74 percent of Americans now hold a favorable view of Medicaid—including 40 percent who have a ‘very favorable’ view—the KFF survey found. A majority of people across party lines say the program is ‘working well for most low-income people.’ Fueling that positive impression is increasingly familiarity with what Medicaid is and how it functions.”

 

KFF Poll: “More Americans believe that the Medicaid work requirements being pushed by the Trump administration are designed to cut government spending rather than help lift people out of poverty as Republican officials claim … According to new polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 41 percent of Americans believe the main reason for introducing work requirements to Medicaid is to cut spending on the program; 33 percent believe the primary motivation is to help lift people out of poverty.”

 

Trump’s efforts to slash Medicaid access continue, despite the fact that the ACA’s Medicaid expansion has helped fight the nation’s opioid epidemic and Trump held an opioid summit just yesterday.

 

CBPP Study: “Medicaid expansion has helped fight the opioid epidemic. That's according to a new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where researchers reviewed federal data on opioid-use-related hospitalizations and concluded that coverage expansion helped uninsured patients get treatment. Researchers analyzed data collected by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and found that the uninsured rate for opioid-related hospitalizations plunged by 79 percent between 2013 and 2015 in Medicaid expansion states but fell by only 5 percent in non-expansion states.”