Poll: GOP owns health care now

by | May 31, 2017 | Editor's Blog, Health Care, Obamacare, Trump | 8 comments

While progressives on twitter and Facebook are obsessed with Russia and Trump, the people Democrats need to reach are more concerned about Trumpcare and jobs. According to recent polls, it’s dissatisfaction with the GOP repeal-and-replace bill that’s doing the most damage to the GOP’s numbers. Trump’s low approval ratings may hurt the GOP, but the AHCA and rising premiums are hurting families. Voters are blaming the party in power for the problems with their health care.

A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 55% of people have an unfavorable view of the GOP’s ACHA while on 31% approve of it. As for Obamacare, it’s coming into its own. About half the country has a favorable impression of the law while 42% have an unfavorable impression. By a measure of 63% to 26%, people say Trump and the GOP now have responsibility for problems with their health care.

To make matters worse, insurance CEOs are blaming Trump for increases in premiums this year. Brad Wilson, CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, said that the company is asking for 23% increase in premiums because Trump and Congress won’t fully fund the program. “The failure of the administration and the House to bring certainty and clarity by funding Cost-Sharing Reductions has caused our company to file a 22.9 percent premium increase, rather than one that is materially lower. That will impact hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.”

Wilson is backed up former CEO of Molina insurance, J. Mario Molina. “Most of the instability driving up premiums in the marketplace can be directly traced to Republicans’ efforts to undermine the healthcare law for their own political purposes.” Look for that quote in ads in the fall of 2018.

In the recent Civitas poll of North Carolina voters, 43% believe the Republican health care bill would make health care worse, while only 27% believe it would be an improvement. Those voters also disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing by a measure of 53% to 42%. Those numbers are creating a difficult political environment for Republicans here.

Democrats should keep focused on health care and economic concerns and not get too distracted by the shiny ball that’s Russian collusion. Voters are self-interested and they’re very sensitive about their health care. Democrats should know that better than anyone. They should stick with what works.

8 Comments

  1. Troy

    I dunno Thomas. If voters are “self-interested”, how did we end up with what we got in the White House?

    • Uncle Grumpy

      Troy,

      Average voter has an IQ of perhaps 103. Not bad at all. Just not particularly indicative of folks who pay much serious attention to policy. They are self-interested: in the mortgage payment and kids’ clothes. They’re swayed by hoopla and charisma – though I find it hard to characterize our prez as “charismatic”. There’s also a component for whom the war(ask not which) is not over, and Prez played to them – probably unconsciously, but still he got them out.

      Back in the day we’d go to the barber ship, the corner store, the beauty parlor and talk with locals who “knew more than we did”. We’d listen to Cronkite, to Huntley/Brinkley – hell, we’d even read a newspaper from time to time.

      Today – tweets.

      Going to be an awfully long next double handful of months. 🙁

      • Troy

        Indeed, it is going to be a long hot summer and year for that matter. For my part, Thomas isn’t wrong; people should vote self interest. In my mind, the biggest self interest is economics. As much as I despise money and the concept of it, I also realize that nothing else matters and nothing else moves without it. While it may be considered by some to be the root of all evil, it is also the root of everything else too. People seem to miss that dynamic when voting for “Christian Values,” “Conservative Values,” “Right to Life,” and “2nd Amendment” guarantees. Yes, they miss out on the fact that unless they can afford to live, none of those other things are really going to matter that much. If the current or similar version of the AHCA passes, they are going to find out how much those hot button issues doesn’t matter.

        Based on the poll results, it looks as if people are coming to the sobering reality that Donald Trump isn’t anything like what he said he was, isn’t going to deliver anything that he said he’d deliver, and is more than willing to take all the accolades for anything that might go right and divert, deflect, and assign the blame on all that is going wrong on whomever is convenient at the time.

        You’re certainly not wrong in your analysis of mean intelligence either or the things that people choose to believe and glean information from. As a child, Cronkite was on TV every evening without fail. I hated it since there were other distractions on the other two channels. As an adult, I likewise watched Cronkite every evening that I was home. Now, there are distractions on 200+ channels plus news and other outlets tailored to disseminate what it is any particular frame of mind wants to hear; as you stated. It seems too that those outlets are being fed a steady stream of deliberate and false information to put out if we are to give credence to initial investigation reports coming from Washington these days.

        The saddest thing in that paragraph though is the reality that people have average intelligence yet are substantially below average in understanding and contemplating the world around them.

        The learning curve is going to be steep through November 2018.

  2. Munn Norma

    We can do both, although I would always prioritize any economic issue. However, regardless of what an elected official says, the press will focus on the dramatic. Also the Russian issue is newer than our decades long fight over health care. Probably seems simpler, although personally it reminds me of a third rate soap opera, albeit with potentially very serious consequences.

    • Christopher Lizak

      Um. Hasn’t the “Russia Issue” been going on constantly since 1948?

      • Norma Munn

        Yes, to some extent, but not as obviously meddling in our elections.

        Also, there are a lot of voters born after 1948, even after the Rosenberg trial, or the Cuban crisis or the JFK assassination or Watergate. My guess is that after the Berlin Wall came down and the decade or so that followed with some degree of “thawing” in relations with Russia, quite a few American citizens began to view Russia as less of an “enemy” or at least with indifference. It is also my impression that the internet, social media, and a far greater ease of travel has made countries that previously seemed very far away much closer in many senses. Which they are. Hacking and cyberwar are fairly recent to all of us, including the press.

        • Christopher Lizak

          I find it fascinating that the Soviet Union ceased to be a Communist Empire, became a Christian free-market nation, and yet we still treat them as the “Red Menace of 1948”.

          If there is any nation on the planet that we ought to be allies with due to our striking similarities, our shared interests, and our MAD ability, it is Russia.

          I wonder why our mass media is so obsessed with making damn sure we see them as a mortal enemy, no matter what they do?

          • The Ghost of Elections Past

            Do you only look at labels? Russia may no longer be Communist, but it is still being led by an authoritarian government which has been invading its neighbors. Now it is attempting to interfere with elections in democratic countries. It may not be the “Red Menace” any longer, but it is perhaps even more of a threat to us. And, it may have a puppet in the White House.

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