House Republicans passed repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with loads of bluster about their doing the will of the people. But when you look at public opinion poll data, that support is “very soft indeed,” according to TDS Co-Editor Ruy Teixeira’s latest ‘Public Opinion Snapshot’ in the Center for American Progress web pages.

…The fact is people like a great deal about the new health care reform law and are reluctant to give up these advances. Consider these results from the latest CBS/New York Times survey. Forty-eight percent of those polled said they preferred to let the new law stand compared to 40 percent who wanted to see it repealed. The latter figure is obviously significant and, in fact, has been up to 10 points higher in other surveys.

Turns out, however, that support for repeal gets downright mushy when respondents are asked “whether they would still support repeal if that meant insurance companies were no longer required to cover those with pre-existing medical conditions.” Teixeira adds, “This query reduced the number supporting complete repeal to just 21 percent.”
No matter how loudly House conservatives crow about their “victory,” the public is not ready to sign on this particular take-away, especially with no alternative to replace it.