I saw a familiar headline over the weekend: "Most Americans oppose health law but like provisions." It's been the only consistent trend when it comes to polling on the Affordable Care Act: the public has been conditioned to reject "Obamacare," but Americans don't really know what's in it. When asked about the provisions of the law, however, they're quite popular.
That was the case in 2009, 2010, and 2011. And the new Reuters-Ipsos poll suggests nothing has changed.
In this case, Greg Sargent obtained the poll internals and found, "What's particularly interesting about this poll is that solid majorities of Republicans favor most of the law's main provisions, too."
Reuters/Ipsos polling data
I put together this chart based on the Reuters-Ipsos data Greg reported on. Note that while there are clear partisan differences on these key provisions of the law, a majority of self-identified Republicans, Democrats, and Independents support each of them.
In fairness, support for the individual mandate and Medicaid expansion isn't as broad. But that doesn't change the fact that most of the key elements of this remain quite popular, even if the overall law isn't (a 56% majority said they oppose the law).
We can debate why so many Americans disapprove of a law they don't understand, and whose fault it is that the public doesn't know what's in the law itself -- I can think of a few culprits -- but when the political world talks about the unpopularity of Obamacare and its proponents' loss in the public-relations battle, remember that the debate is skewed. The right's p.r. success is a mile wide, but an inch deep -- Americans of every stripe still support what it's in the law, even if they don't realize these popular provisions are part of the larger whole.
If policymakers took the component parts of the Affordable Care Act and called it something else, there can be little doubt that the package would poll a lot better.
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Where The Money Go?
You are being used like toilet paper if you vote G.O.P. The people you elected robbed our social security funds. That's why you are borrowing money from China (click here). About half of health care costs occur in the population over 65 covered by medicare. That money was spent and it is gone.
People are screaming about medicare and Obama Care when that isn't even close to the real problem. Congress squandered your $2.5 Trillion social security trust fund fighting -
Now ask why national debt increased as soon as President Obama took office (click here).
Bush emptied the social security trust fund before the recession began in 2007.
The actual problem right now is that lifetime average health care costs is about 15% of income for all of us, which is affordable right now.
The coming problem is that health care costs are increasing at double the rate of inflation, and that won't be affordable 10 years from now.
A big problem for old people that have nothing left to do but vote and go to the doctor.
And it is a problem for schools. The No Child Left Behind program was intended to gut inner city schools to make up these costs.
Dr. Ron Paul and Dr. Rand Paul are both screaming about "evil socialized medicine" and "privatized social security" because physicians are afraid their $300,000/year income will be federally regulated to reduce medicare costs after everybody figures out how social security was robbed.
Don't believe me? It already happened in the European Union. US voters haven't figured out how this works yet because news agencies are uneducated on the topic.
Obama Care is the only game left now that your money has been spent.
Are you aware most of the "burdensome tax increase" mentioned for Obama Care applies to:
Unless you are a millionaire or a health care CEO, you don't pay those costs.
Now tell me why you don't like it.
The coming emergency in health care is that no new medical schools have opened since 1970 (or very few).
We have the same number of doctors servicing double the population, and physician income reflects that shortage.
These numbers are double the growth of income in all other professions.
Government needs to step in to increase the number of health care professionals in order to satisfy obligations created by medicare and other programs, which now includes the affordable care act.
I don't know where it stands now but an interesting factoid. In 1971 I was laid off from my aerospace job and went to Graz, Austria to go to medical school there. While I was there we (about 100 US med students) were visited by an AMA representative whose job was to dissuade us. The AMA rep among other things said that the AMA would put whatever road blocks were necessary to keep the number of physicans in the us below 100,000.
Remove the mockery of academic freedom and allow a slot in medical school for anyone wishing to enter. It's clear that a nepotistic system has evolved.
Because the 1% have managed to convince the public that they are paying all these costs. If they knew that these costs were to be assessed only from the rich they would LOVE the program. It is ENTIRELY a matter of rethug messaging being much better than Dem messaging.
Isn't that fixable? Can't we improve that messaging?
I don't think we should revert to lieing, like they do.
"I don't like meat, but I enjoy burgers, pork chops, and wings." (And you can't make me!)
Great way to put it; brief and pithy.
At least some of that disapproval is due to a question that doesn't distinguish between "it's a bad law that takes us in the wrong direction" and "it goes in the right direction but not nearly far enough."
I, for instance, would enormously prefer tax-supported single payer. Like that is going to happen!
Well from day one FOX NEWS was blasting the healthcare act, and they are still blasting it. They get there experts on the shows to talk about it and they never say whats in it, they just tell people it's bad, it will cost to much, we will lose jobs. but they ever say how it is all these things. Now on the other hand other media act like they are affraid to talk about it and tell us what it does. Everytime I see a show talking about it I stop and Listen so I can find out whats in it
. never get far so I looked it up on line and it really is a very good deal, people are just blowing air about it becouse Fox News said so. so it must be so.
An then you see distorted ads against the healthcare law being dispayed between MSNBC segments without any rebuttal. Strange?
I had read that a majority of the people opposing the health care act are doing so because it didn't go far enough, as into single payer or public option. If someone were to ask me if I liked the ACA, and I could only say yes or no, I'd have to think long and hard whether to say no, because I would prefer single payer, or yes, because its better than nothing.
How the left "Democrats" allowed the right to get the non De plume "Obamacare' to stick; is beyond my feeble comprehension. They need remedial education in staying on message. The fact that bid pharma and insurance companies have made themselves filthy rich, at our expense, should have been hammered home relentlessly!
Ever see the things that an employee PAC at a large corporation supports? I did at AT&T. They supported everybody and anything that was counter to employee well being. It was virtually impossible to determine who the PAC decision makers were. And it was certainly not a democratic process. While it was not mandatory to give to the PAC it was very strongly encouraged.
So the new definition of a 'kid' is 26 years old now??
Isn't it amazing that a 19 year old HS graduate can lead a combat squad in Iraq or Afganistan but a 26 year old college 'graduate' who took 6 or 7 years to get a degree because Mom & Dad are paying the bills, can't let go of the apron strings? I for one would support that military Vet getting back into civilian life before anyone with useless a 'Liberal Arts' degree.
Most of the people in the 1% have liberal arts degrees.
God you sound like my 19 year old son in that is in the Navy right now, at least as far as the liberal art degree goes. Sadly, we need BS and BA degrees, it is not sad that we need both, it is sad that people have to be reminded that we need both. All science or all art are both bad, but a nice mix is good. I agree, we should be driving for more hard science and math degrees, but to say that a BA is a bad thing is itself a bad thing.
Why more hard math and science degrees? The IEEE has for years made note that more degreed people than needed were being graduated due to the number of H1B holders being imported to keep wages down.
Veterans get medical coverage. VA hospitals are government owned and the doctors are government employees. How socialist is that.
What I have always wondered is do they hate the mandate because it requires a few people without insurance to get it, or are they just terrified that some of those people will get a little financial help buying it?
They are petrified of the word socialism or anything that sounds like it.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post wrote in a post available earlier today that Obamacare was wildly unpopular citing a study which actually said that 47% approved while 44% disapproved of the specifics of the legislation. The post is no longer accessible. What does that say?
And every liberal democrat who thinks oil & drug companies profits are too large, please remove them from your stocks, IRA's and 401K's. You can't have it both ways.
And while your at it, take a look at the profits of the defense companies that you blamed on Bush & Cheney. Their up huge percentages with Obama in the WH. Why aren't you blaming him for the same thing?? Make BO has invested in drones????
Oh and clueless 1255207, Bill Gates is a .05%er without a degree at all. Most 1%ers have actually created something of value, (unless you inherited the money, oh... like a Kennedy??) some of which you probably use everyday yourself. Your comment shows your bias.
It's not that we don't think oil and drug companies' profits are too large, it's that they are too large when they create a monopoly of the market and charge far more for their product than is reasonable. For example, the last six months here on the West coast, at least six of the major refineries were all shut down at the same time. Do you know what the windfall profits were for oil companies as a result when we were paying $4.50 a gal for regular and the rest of the country was under $4 at the same time? Drug companies reap huge profits from drugs that have been on the market for a much longer time than it takes to recoup their R&D investment - even more than a tripling of their profits so generics are not available for years beyond when they ought to be able to be produced to compete with the name brand.
Defense companies got those contracts years ago and from Congress the last three years b/c we were in two wars and are still in one and have given a ton of that defense money, not to the military itself, but to private mercenary contractors. Democrats do not think the Defense Dept. should be exempt from cutting their budget and that means defense contractors doing with less, and yes, it may mean some people lose their jobs if the companies can't transition to a peacetime economy. Your insinuation that BO is making money on the drones is insulting...
Bill Gates did go to college; he just didn't get a degree from his academic work. Such genius is admired, when it works, but how many today will have that same opportunity tomorrow? We need a strong education system which Gates has supported both in his own schools and universities so others can get a college degree. You need to check your facts on the 1% - Most of them did inherit and many have invested well, but few have used their own hands to create something of value...but more power to anyone who has.
The question really, Robert, is do you really want 10% of the population to control 90% of the wealth of the nation? I don't. I think they could get by on half that and allow the rest of us who work long hours, or would if we had jobs, to share in the wealth that's created by all of us, and not just received by those who have benefited more from laws that protect them and their gains.
I'm just one Democrat; perhaps others don't share my views. But I know, they want to know the facts.
Robert Furst...a Kennedy? How about Mitt Romney - he inherited his money. Easier to stay a 1% that become a 1%. At least many in the Kennedy family have devoted their lives to public services and I don't mean just politics.
Regarding healthcare, I have good coverage and likely would be "taxed" for it. That said, rates will come down if everyone is covered. Why? Because right now, my current insurance is subsidizing the uninsured. How do I know this? Because I've asked the cash price for a test I had done and found out if was 1/3 of the cost of my co-pay.
As far as college vs military, you draw a ridiculous line. Serving in the military is very honorable and those coming home should be given ever effort to gain the skills to compete in today's job market.
I have two daughters in college that we are paying 100% of their tuition. One will get a degree in business and then hopefully get job with insurance after 4 years. The other has a learning disability and will likely take 5years to graduate. She wants to work helping kids with a learning disability achieve their potential (a bonus for society). A lower paying job, yet one that will help hundreds become productive, tax paying members of our society. She has a pre-existing condition, so allowing her to remain on hour insurance for a couple of more years allows her to get established before she has to pay a very high premium.
Being 26 does not mean lazy - perhaps you should have more compassion.
I just do not understand why you liberals/democrats are so afraid of people making money. After all, you do realize that the private sector gives you your salaries right? You can't get juice out of an orange that's all dried up. Your party is getting more and more radical each and everyday. It terrifies me how you guys think over there, makes me feel more American hearing this garbage though...
http://www.policymic.com/articles/5487/how-obamacare-will-hurt-tax-payers-and-stop-the-economic-recovery
The meeting held on inauguration day recently commented on, and the Senate majority leader saying his main job now was to see to it the President had only one term, shows that everything the administration proposes will be heckled out of possibility of being successful. The teabaggers, paid for by Kochs, and their ilk became an arm of those intent on wrecking this administration. The amount of money advanced to them and others is enormous, and led to the repubs taking control of the House. As vehement as the attacks have been, it is no wonder they can buy all advertising available to spout unbelievable lies and bicufucation masquerading as "NEWS". Is there anything in the law regulating hate crimes that could be launched against what is obviously racial hatred?
I've been thinking about this whole, "support the provision but not the law" thing for a while now, and here's what I think:
It may be that people don't like the way the law was passed or that they don't know everything that's in it. Sure if you ask them if they support extending parent insurance to children in college, they like it. Even if they know that is in the law, doesn't mean they like the 2200 OTHER pages of it.
I like many of the ACA's provisions, but dislike many others. Of those that I like, some of them are implemented in a way that I don't like. (e.g. the state exchanges...maybe a step forward but not particularly good) There are some things I would have liked to see in ACA that aren't in it. (e.g. national, portable, individual catastrophic policies).
Liking some provisions of the ACA and disliking the whole law are not contradictory positions. I realize it's not popular to ascribe sophistication to "the people" but this "like the provisions but not the law" polling may indicate that people are more sophisticated about ACA than we might think.
Hawaii has had free healthcare for decades and all residents love it. Fun fact is that the GOP decided to hold a Republican political rally against the Healthcare law before it was passed... wait for it... in HAWAII. Do they even think this stuff through? Sheesh.
So if the GOP repeals-&-replaces it, their version will have these things too right? I don't trust them. The bill to repeal should also replace. It should all be done in one package deal. Don't let them strip away all of these things that we like, and offer us just a promise to come up with something else sometime down the road.
Lets say you have a car, it's not a brand new Mustang or Corvette, but after years of walking you are glad to have something besides shoe leather to get you where you need to go. Now a used car salesman comes up to you and says he can do better for you. All you have to do is sign the car that you have over to him and he'll replace it. Are you going to do that, sight unseen, without any guarantee that the other car is better than the one you have or that you will ever even receive another car? That's what the GOP is offering us now with health care. Even if you don't like parts of Obamacare, we can do better than just a promise of something else down the road, a grab-bag if you will.