The good news keeps pouring in for supporters of the Affordable Care Act. Heading into the final day to signup for an individual health plan in the federal and state marketplaces, a new poll was released by ABC News and the Washington Post that shows the popularity for the ACA at an all-time high. For the first time in the poll’s history, more people have a favorable view of the health care law than those who oppose it.
In this most recent poll, 49% of Americans responded that they supported the ACA. Meanwhile, 48% said they were not in favor of the law. While this is hardly a huge difference, it does mark the first time that the poll has shown a net positive for the law in terms of popularity. Once before, in July 2012, the poll showed it even at 47-47. This also represented the overall high water mark for the law in this particular poll. The previous high was 48% in November 2009.
After the much-criticized and overblown ‘disastrous rollout’ of the federal health exchange and its website, Healthcare.gov, in October 2013, the ACA showed a net negative of 17 points in this poll, 40-57. Now, it sits at a +1. Recently, a Kaiser poll, while showing a net negative in terms of popularity, revealed that 59% of Americans do not support a repeal of the law, with only 29% supporting such a move. Also, the same poll stated that 53% of people want politicians to stop debating the law and move onto something else.
Yes, this is only one poll. And, obviously, Republicans will be able to point to some other recent poll showing the ACA is unpopular. However, given the context of the tidal wave of good news surrounding these final days of the ACA’s first open enrollment period, you have to think that this poll is like a kick in the gut for conservatives who have placed all of their eggs in the ‘Obamacare is bad’ basket. With enrollment likely to surge past 7 million by the end of the day on Monday, and Medicaid expansion and other provisions of the law having helped millions of other previously uninsured people get health coverage for the first time, Republicans once again find themselves on the wrong side of history.
Justin Baragona is the Managing Editor at Politicus Sports as well as Senior Editor at PoliticusUSA. He was a political writer for 411Mania.com before joining PoliticusUSA. Politically, Justin considers himself a liberal but also a realist and pragmatist. Currently, Justin lives in St. Louis, MO and is married. Besides writing, he also runs his own business after spending a number of years in the corporate world. You can follow Justin on Twitter either with his personal handle (@justinbaragona) or the Sports site’s (@PoliticusSports).
The Right Wing has known from the start that their only chance of defeating the Affordable Care Act was to convince the public of a bunch of total lies. Now that people KNOW there aren’t any death panels, there’s no coverage for illegals, no coverage for abortions, no microchips in children, no takeovers of personal computers, and, best of all, no “skyrocketing premiums”, the Right has lost the war.
This is a proud day for America and for our President. Thank you, President Obama.
Hard to stop a run away train! Either get on board or get out of the way. I am quite sure that Faux news will have their own opinion polls which I am assuming comes from their office pool. People don’t flood websites, jam phone lines and stand in line for hours because they don’t like it. Even a “trained monkey” knows that.
I am sure in a back room somewhere in America there is a meeting of the “best and brightest” (being cynical here) repugnant party minds gathered with the Krotch brothers and other nefarious vermin plotting some diabolical spin campaign. I am assuming it will go something like the insurance companies and the Obama Administration flew to Benghazi with the IRS and cooked the books on the ACA.
Tonight’s CNN still made it sound like it was 1.) All a White House publicity stunt 2.)plagued with glitches 3.) still leaving many Americans unprotected.
And yet, never a mention of those governors who chose not to expand Medicaid for their states and the immorality of denying the poor and uninsured a chance at medical care.
Once all the hyperbole on both sides dies down, the ACA will undergo all the revisions common to large social welfare programs. We’re a few years away from anything remotely “final” in this broad sweeping program. BUT… there is no denying that it was sorely needed.
The democrats have 7 million votes if they stop apologizing and take credit for pushing this law through all the obstructionism of the GOP.
We may not want to see a “Mission Accomplished” T shirt just yet, but we’re well on our way.
Now the Democrats need to get out and vote in the mid-term election and get those republican/teabagger obstructionist out of Congress so we can get that jobs bill, people in America need good jobs.
Medicare for all is next
Republicans should now focus on the countries business and forget about the ACA.
dj – that will not happen unless and until the supporters do the essential work showing how it can improve on ACA, and perhaps are willing to use what it already provides – a German/Dutch/Swiss style of universal care. The latter are based in highly regulated private policies. One third of French health care is also private (a fact “Sicko” never addressed by the way.)
Whether we actually get better care in a Canadian style or German style is pretty much irrelevant since both are excellent. We need to sort out ALL the plans, see what suits us best, and move on, but until that work is done, no one will trust it. Medicare still leaves 20% to us with private supplements that are not cheap, and many don’t have the money. So Medicare for all? Dicey.
We need to do the work, the education, get the votes. THEN we can pick a plan and move the program forward. Without those essential steps, we will not accomplish anything more.
And give up votes 52-1000 to kill it? Where’s the fun in THAT? Then they’d have to, you know, WORK.
We can point to several polls showing the republicans are not popular as well
Thank you President Obama for putting the country on the right track by addressing the problem of health care. Hopefully this will eventually lead to medicare for all. Democrats need to run on this accomplishment during the midterms, pointing out the heartless plan the Republicans have which is nothing…
Well here it is the dead line and I still know someone that thinks they are going to be made to get a chip. So he isn’t signing up. I even heard 1 person say he wasn’t signing up but if he had to, to get his meds he would go down and get help downtown before he would ever go on Obama care. Down town is code word for Medicaid. How can you keep a straight face??? well its hard. They sure have done a job on a few still.
OH YES WE CAN!And we did !!!!
Those supplements or Advantage programs came at the cost of strengthening Medicare. Had the GOP quit with their ideology of market driven policies are better and spent the money they spend on the Advantage program on Medicare we would have seen a much stronger program.
Mourning Joe is sure depressed this am -1 Apr 2014.
And there are some who still proudly carry around their “Keep the Government Out Of My Medicare” signs!
It’s unconscionable how the GOP and their heartless surrogates, Faux News and the right wing radio hosts, and let’s not forget the Koch brothers, have lied to the American people in regard to this law–all for the sake of political expediency. And in doing so, they’ve put millions of people’s lives in jeopardy by dissuading them from signing up for healthcare.
I personally have dispensed, through facebook, email, and word of mouth, information debunking these deliberate lies. I’m pleased that in several cases, it’s made a difference. A couple of my Republican neighbors, that I had informed, signed up for Obamacare, and they’re tickle pink about their coverage. One hinted that he’s thinking about voting Democrat next time around :-).
What pisses me off is their ignorant minions that in spite of the facts push the lies of the 1%. They will not benefit from it and in the end they will send them down a shit covered razor blade down the river. And their stupid ass don’t even realize it
There is that pesky 29% number again. 29% also still thinks the Katrina fiasco was President Obama’s fault, so I don’t read much into that particular number.
It drives me insane when the Pres. admits he just “doesn’t get” the ferocity of opposition to something like the ACA. He’s the first Democrat POTUS to face what an unbridled partisan media INDUSTRY would turn the drama of democracy into. It is not Obama hate as much as it is fear of consequence from the mob the GOP has become. Arguably they have always been anti-social while we, on the opposite side of the spectrum can’t help but co-endure the bleeding hearts of the suffering. If my nature is to be far to the “left” then why can I see it so clearly while the POTUS “just doesn’t get it” He needs to watch Schindler’s List and pay close attention to scene where Schindler bribed the Nazis to let him spray the rail cars with cold water. What was alive in those men who giggled at the plight of the suffocating Jews is alive in some part in everyone unless and until we find the ethic where we will dissent from the mob and face the consequences.
I think he gets it just fine. He knows the score. He says things like that for the peoples benefit