Poll: Public opposition to Senate health bill increases

Public opposition to Republican efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare grew slightly in the past month, but the strongest supporters of President Trump continue to think it’s a good idea, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

Sixty-one percent of Americans polled said they hold unfavorable views of the plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), an increase from the 55 percent who held negative views in June.

The poll also found that the public’s views are becoming more passionate. According to Kaiser, 44 percent of the people polled hold “very unfavorable” views of the plan, up from 38 percent in June.

{mosads}But the public views of ObamaCare repeal efforts are still being driven along party lines. A majority of self-identified Trump supporters and Republicans said they have favorable views of the replacement plan.

The Senate on Thursday released an updated version of the legislation and plan to hold a procedural vote next week. Two senators have already announced opposition to the new version of the bill, meaning GOP leadership can’t lose any more votes if it wants the bill to pass.

Meanwhile, support for ObamaCare continues to hold steady. The poll found that half of the respondents hold a favorable view of the law, while 44 percent hold an unfavorable view. The numbers have largely been stable the past few months, meaning the law continues to be more popular than Congress’s plan to replace it.

But most Americans said they would prefer Republicans and Democrats to work together on healthcare — 71 percent said they would like to see a bipartisan effort to fix the ACA. Some moderate Republicans hold a similar view, but conservatives largely see a bipartisan bill as a waste of time.

The poll of 1,187 adults was conducted July 5 to July 10, about a week after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its analysis of the GOP draft legislation. A CBO score on the updated version of the bill is expected on Monday.

The first analysis dealt a blow to the Senate legislation last month when it projected that 22 million people would lose health insurance by 2026, and Medicaid would be cut by $772 billion over the same period.