MARCH 1, 2018
Despite
President Donald Trump’s boasting that “we have essentially repealed
Obamacare,” a new poll shows the Affordable Care Act is more popular
than ever. In fact, many people don’t know Congress repealed the ACA’s penalty
for not having insurance.
The poll from the Kaiser Family
Foundation found 54 percent of Americans had a favorable view
of the 2010 health law that expanded health coverage to millions. That was up
four points from January, and it’s highest point since the monthly survey began
in 2010. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The
survey found 40 percent of respondents were unaware that Congress in January
repealed the individual mandate penalty as part of the federal tax overhaul. It
takes effect in 2019. About
one in five people were aware of the repeal but believed incorrectly that it
had taken effect this year.
Only 13
percent of respondents were aware that both the requirement to buy insurance
was repealed and that it remains in effect for 2018.
The
public’s lack of knowledge about the individual mandate likely reflects the
fact that few people are affected by it. The majority of Americans have health
coverage or are exempt from the mandate because their income is too low, said
Ashley Kirzinger, a Kaiser polling expert.
“Confusion
over the status of the ACA’s individual mandate stems from a lot of different
things, but health care policy is complicated and the public generally doesn’t
pay attention to details of health policy until it directly impacts them,” she
said.
The
poll showed the public is also split on what’s motivating states to add a work
requirement to Medicaid.
About
41 percent of those surveyed said states were looking to lower government
spending while 33 percent believed states were enacting the new requirements to
“lift people out of poverty.”
The
Trump administration in February approved requests from Indiana and Kentucky to require
some non-disabled adults to work as a condition of having Medicaid coverage. At
least eight more states are waiting for a green light.
About
two-thirds of Americans said states should not put time limits on how long
people can be enrolled in Medicaid as long as they qualify, the poll found.
Support for lifetime caps was stronger among Republicans (51 percent) than
Democrats (16 percent).
A
Kaiser poll from June 2017 found
that 70 percent of Americans support states imposing work requirements on
non-disabled Medicaid adults.
The
latest Kaiser poll of 1,193 adults was conducted Feb. 15 – 20 and has a margin
of error of +/- 3 percentage points.
Phil
Galewitz: pgalewitz@kff.org,
@philgalewitz
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