In 2010, former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in the U.S. For millions of Americans, this meant that healthcare coverage that previously was not available to them was now a reality, but for others it meant nothing more than higher insurance premiums. Depending on the source, opinions about Obamacare can vary greatly. An unbiased survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non profit organization which specializes in analyzing health policies, found that about 52% of those surveyed favored Obamacare, a 9% increase since the election of President Trump and the highest approval rating that the act has ever received. The results from the survey also found that 60% of people were glad that Congress hadn’t repealed Obamacare and that 78% simply wanted the healthcare act to be updated and improved.
This survey polled a random sample of 1,211 Americans over the age of 18 over the telephone from August 1st- August 6th. 376 of those polled identified as Democrats, 275 identified as Republican and the rest identified themselves as independents or without political affiliation. Of this sample, 447 individuals approved of president Trump’s time in office so far and 726 did not.
The survey found that 57% of those polled wanted the Democratic and Republican parties to work together in Congress to improve Obamacare for the American citizens while another 21% wanted Republicans to continue working on their own healthcare plan to replace Obamacare. The rest of the people surveyed expressed that they would rather have Congress focus on a different issue such as tax reform.
If President Trump chooses to negotiate with Congress or insurance carriers to reach his own healthcare reform goals, it may mean that many Americans would lose coverage or that the marketplace altogether could result in turmoil. 63% of the polled individuals in this survey didn’t believe that this sort of negotiation would be beneficial for the American people. Many more in this survey also agreed that increased premium prices and reduced choices for insurance coverage would negatively affect their families.
Of those polled by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 65% felt that President Trump should simply enforce the individual mandate under Obamacare. The open enrollment period for insurance begins on November 1st and it’s been reported that both Republican and Democratic members of Congress are working to improve the healthcare market before this date. Though Congress isn’t in session again until September 5th, hopefully they will be able to come to a reasonable compromise that all Americans can be satisfied with.