The Kaiser Family Foundation released results from a very interesting poll it conducted this month on the temperature of Americans and healthcare reform. The survey was carried out from August 1st through the 6th, among a random sample of 1,211 Americans over the age of 18 years old, via telephone. Of the 1,211 people surveyed, 376 identified as Democrats, 275 identified as Republicans and the rest were Independents or did not identify a party affiliation.
Of the random sample of people, 447 approved of President Trump and 726 did not approve of President Trump’s time in office so far.
Overall, KFF’s results found that 52% of the people polled favor Obamacare, which is up 9 percentage points since the election. Of the people polled, 60% of people were also happy that Congress didn’t pass a bill to repeal and/or replace Obamacare and 78% think that Congress should just fix Obamacare.
A majority of the people polled (57%) want the parties to work together in Congress to fix and improve Obamacare. 21% want Republicans to keep working on their own plan and another 21% want Congress just to move on tax reform or some other pertinent issue.
63% of the people polled don’t agree with President Trump’s tactics to negotiate to get what he wants from Congress or insurance carriers either if it means that it could cause more issues for the marketplace and result in them losing coverage.
A majority of the people polled believe that increased premium prices and more carriers pulling plans from the marketplace will have an affect on their family and their coverage even if they don’t get health coverage on the marketplace.
65% of the people polled believe that President Trump should enforce the individual mandate under Obamacare.
Congress is on vacation for the month of August and are not back in session until September 5th, but it’s being reported that a number of members from both sides of the aisle are still actively working on ways to improve the market for this open enrollment period, which begins on November 1st.
