The Affordable Care Act wins nearly 60% support among the public for its expansion of healthcare benefits to millions of Americans, according to the latest KFF tracking poll released Wednesday.
The poll comes with the highest number of Americans ever signed up for individual coverage under the ACA, also known as Obamacare, which has been purchased by more than 20 million Americans for the 2024 coverage year.
“The Affordable Care Act continues to be more popular than it was prior to Republican attempts to repeal it in 2017, with six in ten (59%) expressing a favorable view, though partisans are divided on what they want to see done with the law,” KFF said in its analysis of the polling data. “About three in four Democrats want the next Presidential Administration and Congress to expand what the law does (77%), while about two-thirds of Republicans either want the law to be scaled back (23%) or repealed entirely (39%). A majority of independents want the law to be expanded (48%) or kept as is (18%).”
An ”historic” 21.3 million Americans signed up for health insurance marketplace plans for 2024 in states that use HealthCare.gov, including “more than five million people — about one-fourth — who are new to the Marketplaces,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said last month.
But the success and growth of Obamacare hasn’t stopped former President Donald Trump from wanting to resurrect his past attempts — which failed several times – to get rid of the health law.
In the last six months while on the campaign trail of Republican primaries, Trump has said he would reopen the fight over the ACA, saying he was “seriously looking at alternatives” if he wins a second term. When Trump was in office from 2017 to 2021, he and Republicans were criticized because they didn’t have a replacement plan.
Very few believe Trump now has a plan—even among members of his own Republican party, according to the KFF survey conducted January 30 through February 7 online and by telephone among a sample of more than 1,300 U.S. adults, including 1,055 registered voters. “Although the vast majority of Republicans say Trump has a better approach to the ACA, few (30%) Republican voters think Trump has a health care plan to replace it,” KFF said in its analysis of poll data.
“While President Trump has talked about wanting to replace the ACA during his campaign, just 1 in 6 voters (16%) say that he has a plan to do so,” KFF said. “Among Republican voters, just 3 in 10 say that he has a plan.”
