As the United States House and Senate jockey over funding ObamaCare and the "health insurance exchanges" it created are about to launch, a Washington Post/ABC News poll released today speaks volumes about how the public sees the "Affordable Care Act" three years later.
Overall the results show opposition to ObamaCare and a deep conviction neither the federal government nor the states are prepared. The headline to the ABC News story explaining the results is "Obamacare Arrives 3 Years Later, Little Understood and Not Well-Liked." What do the results tell us?
First, by a ten point margin (52% to 42%), the public opposes ObamaCare. "The 52% level of opposition to the law is the highest level since April 2012 in this polling series," writes Ed Morrissey. (ABC News's Damla Ergun adds, "In 16 ABC-Post polls since August 2009, it has never received majority support.") Among independents, there is slightly greater opposition—54% to 42%.
Second, women are very unhappy. While 46% of men support the law, only 38% of women support ObamaCare. Significantly while Obama's job performance continues to receive near unanimous support (7 out of 8) from African-Americans, not even half-48%–support what is often called Obama's "signature domestic accomplishment."
"Fifty-five percent, further, disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling implementation of the law, with 'strong' disapprovers outnumbering strong approvers by a 23-point margin," Ergun writes.
Asked what effect ObamaCare has had thus far, almost twice as many (36%) say the law it's worsened the health care system overall as say it has improved the health care system (19%). The remaining 39% saw no effect as yet.
And the worse number of all is when respondents were asked if felt they have adequate information on the law. Barely a third (35%) said yes, while 62% said no.
Contact: Dave Andrusko, National Right to Life
