Stories

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

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?