By Thomas Phippen
Republican voters overwhelmingly believe Obamacare should be repealed, even though party leaders in charge of Congress appear to be ready to move on.
More than half of GOP voters surveyed for a Politico-Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll released Friday say that repealing the Affordable Care Act is an “extremely important priority,” and 25 percent more believe it is a “very important priority.”
The poll, which randomly surveyed Americans of all political parties on what they saw as legislative priorities, suggests that the congressional leadership’s priorities do not align with those of most of citizens.
“The president’s concerns and criticisms of walking away from another effort to replace the ACA have really stuck among Republican [voters],” Robert Blendon of Harvard, who helped design the study, told Politico. “The takeaway is that [Congress] should make one more try at changing the ACA rather than the proposed tax reforms.”
Only 27 percent of Democratic voters and 46 percent of Independent voters believed that “Taking action to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act” was either an extremely or very important priority.
The overall most important legislative priority for both Republicans and Democrats is for congress to take action on drug pricing, with 30 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of Democrats, and 36 of Independents saying it was an extremely important priority, according to the poll. The pollers surveyed just more than 1,000 people during Hurricane Harvey, but did not include disaster aid relief in list of options.
The Senate failed three times to agree to a health care reform package this summer. The last defeat of any repeal package came when three Republican senators crossed the aisle to vote against the Obamacare overhaul.
President Donald Trump has continued to publicly pressure Republican leaders to work toward fixing the health care system, while at the same time reforming the U.S. tax code — which 34 percent of Republicans, 11 percent of Democrats, and 22 percent of Independents listed as an extremely important priority.
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