Many U.S. adults who support repealing the Affordable Care Act are leery of the idea of withholding implementation funding if the act remains in place.
Researchers at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif., and Harvard University have reported that finding in a summary of results from a telephone survey conducted from Jan. 4 to Jan. 14. The sample included 1,502 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.
The percentage of participants who said they have a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act – the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) – has fallen to 41%, from a peak of 50% in July 2010, and the percentage of participants who said they oppose the act has increased to 50%, from 35%, over that same period.
About 43% of the participants said they would like to repeal the act, either with or without replacing it.
About 47% of the participants – including 83% of the Democrats polled and just 15% of the Republicans polled – would like to see the act kept as is or expanded.
The researchers also asked participants about their views on blocking implementation of the act, if the act stays on the books, by taking away implementation funding.
About 33% of all participants said they approve of defunding, and 62% said they oppose of defunding.
Survey participants who support repealing the law expressed the strongest support for the defunding strategy: 56% of the repeal advocates said they also support defunding, but 38% of the repeal advocates said they oppose defunding, and 6% of the repeal advocates refused to answer the question or said they were undecided.
- Warren S. Hersch
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