After pushing hard to get a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with the Better Care Reconciliation Act before the Fourth of July recess, Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, delayed the vote Tuesday. While Republicans can only afford two Senators from their party to oppose the bill, a half-dozen have expressed reservations. And more Republicans might reconsider their support after three recently released polls show that the bill is wildly unpopular with the American electorate.
A USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released Wednesday shows that only 12% of Americans support the Senate health care plan. 53% say Congress should either leave the Affordable Care Act alone or work within its framework to fix problems. The same sentiments were echoed in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll that shows support for the bill at just 17%. The poll found that 55% disapprove of the bill, while 24% said they hadn’t heard enough to have an opinion.
The bill’s low poll numbers come after the CBO released a study showing 22 million people would lose health insurance within 10 years if it passed. It would also gut Medicaid in favor of giving tax breaks to the wealthy. A Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 53% of voters oppose the Medicaid cuts while 27% support the plan.
One person who took the USA Today poll perfectly summed up America’s reticence to fully embrace the Affordable Care Act. Although the bill allows people with pre-existing conditions to purchase health insurance, it does so by mandating that others purchase coverage, sometimes against their will. “I had one relative who probably was uninsurable and was able to get insurance that they wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise,” Donald Jones, 61, a sheriff from West Frankfort, Illinois, told USA Today. “I had another family member who was forced to get insurance that they really can’t afford.”
