March 9 (UPI) — Gallup said Monday that a slight majority of Americans support the Affordable Care Act as it nears its 10-year anniversary.
Fifty-two percent of U.S. adults surveyed approved of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010, the Gallup poll showed.
Since President Donald Trump has been in office, public reaction to the health care law has been favorable or closely split compared to 2012-2016, when reaction was more unfavorable.
A record-high 55 percent approval of the law was reached in 2017, according to Gallup.
Poll figures dating back to 2012 showed sharply divergent views based on political party, with the division growing even more so this year as a record-high percentage of Democrats, 94 percent, now approve of the ACA, compared to 11 percent of Republicans.
Independents views have remained in between Democrats and Republicans with 53 percent approving of the ACA this year.
On the positive side, 78 percent said they did not have to change their primary doctor and the same percentage said they did not have to give up a medical plan because of noncompliance with the ACA.
Other advantages were that 20 percent said they have gotten coverage for a pre-existing medical condition that wasn’t covered before the law was passed, 22 percent said they were able to keep or add an adult child on their plan and 28 percent said the ACA allowed them to obtain health insurance after not previously having it.
On the negative side, 61 percent said they do not think they have access to more services in their plan since the law was enacted and 53 percent reported their premiums have increased since the law passed.
“While a slight majority of Americans approve of the Affordable Care Act, scarcely improved over the mostly divided support seen since Trump took office, Democrats are more likely than ever to approve of the healthcare law,” Gallup Editor in Chief Mohamed Younis said in a statement. “Thus, despite some Democratic presidential candidates’ focus on ‘Medicare for all,” these results indicate Democrats are in no hurry to abandon the ACA.”
Gallup interviewed a random sample of 1,020 adults across the United States from Feb. 17-28 with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
