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Republicans actually like Obamacare
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For Republicans, nothing captures what they loathe about Barack Obama's presidency more perfectly than Obamacare -- it's Big Government run amok and an existential threat to American liberty. But it turns out Republicans like what's actually in the law.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken June 19-23 found that Obamacare remains deeply unpopular: 56 percent of Americans oppose the law vs. only 44 percent who favor it. But the poll also found that strong majorities favor the law's individual provisions -- including solid majorities of Republicans.
I asked Ipsos for a partisan breakdown of the data. Key points:
• Eighty percent of Republicans (and 75 percent of independents) favor "creating an insurance pool where small businesses and uninsured have access to insurance exchanges to take advantage of large group pricing benefits."
• Fifty-seven percent of Republicans (and 67 percent of independents) support "providing subsidies on a sliding scale to aid individuals and families who cannot afford health insurance."
• Fifty-four percent of Republicans (and 75 percent of independents) favor "requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide insurance for their employees."
• Fifty-two percent of Republicans (and 69 percent of independents) favor "allowing children to stay on parents insurance until age 26."
• Seventy-eight percent of Republicans (and 82 percent of independents) support "banning insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions"; 86 percent of Republicans (and 87 percent of independents) favor "banning insurance companies from cancelling policies because a person becomes ill."
One provision that isn't backed by a majority of Republicans? The one "expanding Medicaid to families with incomes less than $30,000 per year."
"Most Republicans want to have good health coverage," Ipsos research director Chris Jackson told me. "They just don't necessarily like what it is Obama is doing."
Bottom line: Big numbers of Republicans and independents favor regulation of the health insurance system. But the law has become so defined by the individual mandate -- not to mention the president himself -- that public sentiment on the actual reforms has been drowned out. It's another sign of the conservative messaging triumph in this fight and Democrats' failure to make the case for the law.
Now that the law has been upheld by the Supreme Court, let's see who can win the argument in the court of public opinion. The Democrats have a shot if they can refocus the debate on the individual reforms they've championed and what, if anything, Republicans would replace them with.
First Published June 29, 2012 12:00 am
