Two years into the contentious and partisan debate over how to remake America’s failing health care system, are Americans finally embracing the concept of universal single-payer?
Republicans on Capitol Hill ready to pass sweeping and unprecedented legislation repealing the health care reform bill passed last year may be walking into a political trap if they’re successful in taking a symbolic whack at President Obama’s signature domestic achievement. What was once a solid force of public support for the repeal agenda of the “tea party” and Republican candidates last November has suddenly veered in the opposite direction.
A new AP/Gfk poll finds that while support for and opposition to health care reform is still split evenly. However, more Americans want to see the law expanded and made more robust than want to see it disappear entirely, which is the platform of the GOP, or left alone, as Democrats and the White House want to do.
As lawmakers shaken by the shooting of a colleague return to the health care debate, an Associated Press-GfK poll finds raw feelings over President Barack Obama’s overhaul have subsided.
Ahead of a vote on repeal in the GOP-led House this week, strong opposition to the law stands at 30 percent, close to the lowest level registered in AP-GfK surveys dating to September 2009.
The nation is divided over the law, but the strength and intensity of the opposition appear diminished. The law expands coverage to more than 30 million uninsured, and would require, for the first time, that most people in the United States carry health insurance.
The poll finds that 40 percent of those surveyed said they support the law, while 41 percent oppose it. Just after the November congressional elections, opposition stood at 47 percent and support was 38 percent.
As for repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now.
Also, 43 percent say they want the law changed so it does more to re-engineer the health care system. Fewer than one in five say it should be left as it is.
“Overall, it didn’t go as far as I would have liked,” said Joshua Smith, 46, a sales consultant to manufacturers who lives in Herndon, Va. “In a perfect world, I’d like to see them change it to make it more encompassing, but judging by how hard it was to get it passed, they had to take whatever they could get.”
Adding to the mix is a sustained opposition to the idea of mandated purchase of health insurance that was pioneered under Mitt Romney’s health reform in Massachusetts and controversially adopted by the White House and congressional Democrats as a means of providing a platform for “universal” coverage without the implementation of single-payer (a “compromise” staunchly opposed by progressives).
Nearly six in 10 oppose the law’s requirement that people carry health insurance except in cases of financial hardship. Starting in 2014, people will have to show that they’re covered either through an employer, a government program, or under their own plan.
Rich Johnson, 34, an unemployed laborer from Caledonia, Wis., said he thinks the heart of the law is good. “The problem I have with it is mandating insurance so that you have to have it or you’ll get fines,” said Johnson, an independent. “I just don’t think people should be forced to have it. The rest of it, I have no problem with.”
I’d really love to see the Republicans repeal the health care law and take away all the good benefits of it that people across the country are already starting to enjoy. The reaction to that will be something to see….
The attempted repeal of the HealthCare Bill by the GOP is nothing but eyewash for the TeaBaggers. It will be a total waste of time and money.