Polls show deep partisan divide over Affordable Care Act

A comprehensive analysis of data from 27 public opinion polls conducted by 14 organizations, including a poll in September of those most likely to vote, shows an electorate polarized by political party when it comes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A majority of Republican likely voters want the next Congress to repeal the law (56%), with an additional 27% favoring scaling it back. In contrast, a majority of Democratic voters want the new Congress to move ahead with the law (74%), either by implementing the current law (30%) or expanding its scope (44%). …

“The intensity of partisan feeling about the ACA in this election could make the next phase of its implementation a very contentious issue in the next Congress,” said Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the analysis that appears as an online Special Report on October 29, 2014, in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The polling results not only show health care as the third-ranked issue in this election, but also portray a number of other striking findings. Despite millions of Americans who were uninsured now receiving coverage under the ACA, public approval of the ACA has not improved since it was enacted four years ago. CONT.

Harvard School of Public Health

Recent polls: Affordable Care Act

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