Feb 24, 2017

Obamacare just keeps getting more popular (sort of)

The Kaiser Family Foundation is out today with the latest evidence that the repeal threat is making Obamacare more popular: Its monthly tracking poll shows the highest favorable rating the program has had since 2010, the year President Barack Obama signed it into law.

It's not great — just 48 percent, which says a lot about how low the approval ratings were before. But it's clearly higher than the unfavorable ratings for the first time in more than a year. (A Pew Research Center poll yesterday found the same thing, but with a higher approval rating: 54 percent.)

Data: Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Polls; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Data: Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Polls; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios

A few other highlights:

  • Still evenly divided on repeal: 47 percent say yes, 48 percent say no.
  • More people want a replacement at the same time (28 percent) than want repeal first (18 percent).
  • That's true of Republicans too: 48 percent want repeal-and-replace, 31 percent want repeal first.
  • Don't stiff the Medicaid expansion states: 84 percent say they should keep getting their federal funds.
  • Big majority prefers current Medicaid program (66 percent) to per-capita caps (31 percent).
  • Same with Medicaid block grants: Public prefers current Medicaid program, 63 percent to 32 percent.

The big question: Who are the 16 percent of Republicans who don't want repeal?

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