To show you the heavy lifting the Democrats and White House will have running up to the 20-14 elections, a new Pew Research survey finds only 40% approve of Obamacare. The good news for the Democrats and the White House: Americans don’t want to totally scuttle it.
But it’s hardly the scenario many predicted would be in play years ago when it was argued that once the law went into effect it would get widespread support. (On a personal note, I know someone who has been trying for more than a month to get on Covered California and all he gets are error messages and unanswered emails as the time to register grows shorter. He’s about to call a county agency since the website and emails are fruitless.)
The trending on these numbers isn’t good news for the Democrats politically:
Nearly four years after it was signed into law, the Affordable Care Act remains unpopular with the public. According to a new Pew Research survey, just 41 percent of Americans approve of the law.
Support for Obamacare has remained mostly stable over the last four years; when it was passed, 40 percent of Americans approved of it. However, disapproval has increased — from 44 percent around the time of passage to 53 percent now.
Can this number be reversed by easier enrollment stories, enrollees happy with what they get (which would emerge in stories in the media), and its greater acceptance among Amricans? Or will this trend continue up until November (and beyond)?
There is clearly a partisan divide — but the law is losing the independents:
While Americans generally aren’t fond of the law, they still oppose completely doing away with it. “Among Democrats and independents, most who disapprove of the law want elected officials to try to make it work,” said the report that accompanied the results. However, Republicans are divided, 43 percent-40 percent, over whether officials should work to make the law fail or make it work.
Unsurprisingly, nearly three out of four Democrats approve of the law and almost 90 percent of Republicans disapprove. But Obamacare is also unpopular with independents, as only 37 percent approve. There are also stark differences among racial groups. Seventy-seven percent of African-Americans approve of the ACA, while just 33 percent of whites do. Hispanics are evenly divided, 47-47.
NOTE: The usual pattern in polls is that people who agree with it tout it. Those who don’t start attacking its methodology and legitimacy. Pew is highly respected. At the very least, it suggests the White House and Democrats are not sufficiently making their case on what the law is and how it works.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.