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 The Oct. 14-23 poll found that 62 percent of Americans want former
President Barack Obama's healthcare law to be maintained, up from 54
percent in a January poll. About half – including 51 percent of
Democrats and 56 percent of Republicans – want "a bipartisan group"
rather than just members of their own parties to improve the
healthcare system.
"It's not enough just to rip up the law," said Tim Lukasek, 45, who
has insurance provided by his employer in St. Louis but likes a
feature of Obamacare that allows him to cover his young adult
children under his insurance policy. Lukasek described himself as
more likely to vote Democrat.
"It should be a bipartisan mix of people hashing this out, and then
everyone needs to agree on it," he said.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly tried to repeal the Affordable
Care Act since it became law in 2010, saying it represents
government overreach into personal healthcare decisions and drives
up prices for consumers.
More than 20 million Americans have obtained medical coverage under
Obamacare, and Democrats warn that killing the law would cut many of
them off from insurance.
President Donald Trump, who had promised during his 2016 election
campaign to repeal and replace Obamacare and has vowed to let the
law implode, this month terminated subsidies paid to health insurers
that help cover medical expenses for low-income Americans.
Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican, and Senator Patty Murray, a
Democrat, have proposed a short-term fix to restore the subsidies
for two years to stabilize the individual insurance markets created
by Obamacare until a longer-term replacement can be negotiated.
"There are a lot of issues, but I think (the politicians) should
just put their differences aside and think about what's better for
everyone else in the country," said Kadee Matthew, a veterinary
technician who lives outside of Birmingham, Alabama, and identifies
as a moderate Republican.
Poll participants were split over who would do a better job at the
repairs. Democrats were more likely to say the federal government,
while Republicans were more likely to prefer that U.S. states take
the lead.
The majority of those surveyed believe the law has been successful
at "expanding health insurance coverage in the U.S." Responses were
split along party lines, with most Democrats saying it was
successful and most Republicans saying it was not.
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"It was working until now, but a lot of rocks are being thrown at
it," said Catherine Evans, a stay-at-home mom in Silver Spring,
Maryland, who said she is more likely to vote Democratic.
She noted Trump's decision to cut off billions of dollars in subsidy
payments to insurers. Insurers have raised monthly premium costs for
the most popular Obamacare plans by 34 percent, on average, for
2018, according to an analysis by Avalere Health.
A majority of adults – 56 percent – said they opposed Trump's
decision on subsidies, versus 29 percent who supported it.
Evans said she would like to see both political parties work
together to stabilize the insurance market, but "I don't think right
now they are capable of that. The way they are behaving is so
childish and petty. It's ridiculous."
Healthcare experts say that Trump's moves to undermine the law and
statements declaring Obamacare as "dead" have created confusion
among consumers who were planning to enroll, beginning next week, in
health coverage for 2018.
Among the people surveyed by Reuters/Ipsos, 11 percent said they
believed that Obamacare had ended, versus 67 percent who said the
program was "still operating."
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English throughout
the United States. Some of the poll questions ran longer than
others, gathering between 3,865 and 1,545 responses each.
The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3
percentage points for the entire sample, 4 percentage points for
responses from Democrats and 5 percentage points for responses from
Republicans.
(Reporting by Jilian Mincer and Chris Kahn; Editing by Michele
Gershberg and Leslie Adler)
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