Poll finds most in US to blame GOP, future ACA failures

By Barry Eitel

SAN FRANCISCO

Most Americans believe President Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress will be responsible for any future problems with Obamacare, a poll released Friday finds.

The poll, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit health policy organization, found that 61 percent of those polled believe Republicans would be to blame if there are future issues with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often called Obamacare. Kaiser polled 1,201 adults via telephone earlier this month.

Half of Americans say the current White House would be chiefly responsible if fewer people signed up for healthcare during open enrollment this year.

The majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents said that they supported expanding Medicare, the government’s health insurance for people over the age of 65 or younger people with disabilities. Overall, about 70 percent of Americans encourage expanding Medicare to those younger than 65 years old.

The public was less enthusiastic about the ACA itself, with 50 percent holding a favorable view of the landmark health legislation and 46 percent holding an unfavorable view.

“As in the past, these views largely fall along party lines,” Kaiser said in a statement.

Views of Trump himself varied widely depending on political party, the researchers found. Among Republicans, 82 percent said they trusted Trump, while only 11 percent of Democrats agreed with that sentiment. Kaiser found 42 percent of independents said they trust Trump.

“The poll also finds a huge partisan divide in how much people trust President Trump to do what’s best for health care in this country,” Kaiser continued.

While Republicans attempted several times this year to repeal the ACA, the efforts were largely unsuccessful. Now, a tax overhaul bill working through the Senate would repeal the individual mandate section of the ACA, which requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. Democrats say that repealing the individual mandate would cause insurance premiums to spike and result in millions of uninsured Americans over the next decade.