WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As the Affordable Care Act's second open
enrollment period begins, 37% of Americans say they approve of the law,
one percentage point below the previous low in January. Fifty-six
percent disapprove, the high in disapproval by one point.
Americans were slightly more positive than negative about the law
around the time of the 2012 election, but they have consistently been
more likely to disapprove than approve of the law in all surveys that
have been conducted since then. Approval has been in the low 40% or high
30% range after a noticeable dip that occurred in early November 2013.
This was shortly after millions of Americans received notices that their
current policies were being canceled, which was at odds with President
Barack Obama's pledge that those who liked their plans could keep them.
The president later said, by way of clarification, that Americans could
keep their plans if those plans didn't change after the ACA was passed.
The current 37% reading comes on the heels of last week's midterm
elections, in which Republicans won full control of both houses of
Congress. Already, party leaders are discussing efforts to repeal the
unpopular law.
Repeal is highly unlikely, given Obama's veto power, but the law's
new low in approval -- and new high in disapproval (56%) -- could
potentially have an impact on its future. The president himself has
acknowledged he will consider modifications to the law, which could
include repealing the tax on medical devices.
Approval Among Independents at 33%
Approval of the law continues to diverge sharply by party, with 74%
of Democrats and 8% of Republicans approving of it. Independents have
never been particularly positive toward the law, with approval ranging
between 31% and 41%. Currently, 33% of independents approve.
Nonwhites, who disproportionately identify as Democrats, have
maintained majority approval since the ACA's inception, now at 56%.
Though this is still about double the level of approval among whites
(29%), it is the first time nonwhites have fallen below the 60% mark.
Bottom Line
Americans have never been overly positive toward the ACA, at best
showing a roughly equal division between approval and disapproval early
on in the law's implementation. The percentage of Americans who approve
of the law represents a new numerical low, which could indicate a loss
of faith in the law amid the aftermath of the 2014 midterms. Although
the ACA, also called Obamacare, was not as dominant an issue in this
year's congressional elections as it was in 2010, the issue was part of
Republicans' campaign efforts to oppose the president's agenda overall.
In doing that, many of the party's candidates were successful.
Though the law's implementation suffered setbacks last fall,
government officials have greater optimism for the health insurance
website's usability this time around. Importantly, though, approval of
the law has remained low throughout the year even as it has had obvious success in reducing the uninsured rate.
And with approval holding in a fairly narrow range since last fall, it
may be that Americans have fairly well made up their minds about the
law, and even a highly successful second open enrollment period may not
do much to boost their approval.
CASEY MULLIGAN, a professor of economics at the
University of Chicago, received his Ph.D. in economics from the
University of Chicago in 1993. He has been a visiting professor at
Harvard University and Clemson University, and is affiliated with the
National Bureau of Economic Research, the George J. Stigler Center for
the Study of the Economy and the State, and the Population Research
Center. He has written for the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and is the author of three books, including Side Effects: The Economic Consequences of the Health Reform.
A
new report prepared by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office
(GAO) demonstrates that, despite the president’s clear promise,
taxpayer dollars are being spent on abortion plans under the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act. Just over five years ago, President Obama stood before a joint session of Congress and declared to the American people,
“under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions,
and federal conscience laws will remain in place.” But the GAO report
confirms that the administration is failing to uphold its promise. The
independent watchdog found that the health law’s accounting gimmick is
not being enforced and more than one thousand plans available on the
health insurance exchanges cover abortion on demand. Additionally, the
GAO found that information about abortion coverage for plans available
on the exchanges is not uniformly available to consumers. 
When the House Republicans In Name Only (RINO's) caved to Obama and gave him everything he wanted on the national debt limit and Obamacare, we suggested in our reserved and soft-spoken way that every one of them should be primaried. Therefore, we are pleased that conservative icon Richard Viguerie has predicted just that. Indeed, he believes that House and Senate GOP leadership will face an "absolute bloodbath" in 2014. Viguerie says conservative Republicans "have been betrayed, abandoned by our leaders, and that includes Mitch
McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, [and] Reince
Priebus at the Republican National Committee."
A
little-noticed part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act channels
some $12.5 billion into a vaguely defined “Prevention and Public Health
Fund” over the next decade–and some of that money is going for
everything from massage therapists who offer “calming techniques,” to
groups advocating higher state and local taxes on tobacco and soda, and
stricter zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants.
