Messing With Obamacare Would Be Fatal For The GOP

The American people really like Obamacare and a record number of Americans believe that the federal government has a responsibility to make sure that every American has healthcare.

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People Love Obamacare

Gallup is out with a new survey on healthcare, and what they found was that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is approaching record popularity.

Fifty-four percent of U.S. adults approve of the ACA, essentially tying the record-high 55% readings in April 2017 (during Republican-led attempts to repeal the law) and November 2020 (after Joe Biden won election as president). Approval has generally been 50% or above since Obama left office in 2017, but the law was far less popular during his tenure, ranging from 37% to 48% approval.

Ninety-four percent of Democrats and 19% of Republicans approve of the law, both highs for those groups. Fifty-three percent of independents approve.

Those who approve of the ACA divide evenly between wanting the law kept in place largely as it is (48%) and keeping the law but making significant changes to it (48%). This is a shift from the past, when larger shares of those who approved of the law wanted changes to it than do now.

Those who want to get rid of Obamacare are still giving lip service to the old “repeal and replace” line, but that idea died with John McCain’s thumbs down on the Senate floor.

The Affordable Care Act is the great transformative legislation of this century. Not only did Barack Obama and congressional Democrats deliver real improvements to the American healthcare system, but they also changed the American people's expectations for healthcare.

The benefits of Obamacare are increasingly viewed as rights, which is really bad news for any Republican with ambitions to change the law.

Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) isn’t as beloved yet as Social Security and Medicare, but it is much younger and well on the way to becoming as enshrined as those programs.

Republicans Have All But Given Up On Getting Rid Of Obamacare

On Sunday, Trump prattled on to Meet The Press for an hour, but to understand why Obamacare isn’t going anywhere, you only need to read one sentence. When asked about Obamacare, Trump said, “I’m the one who saved Obamacare.”