Well old ‘Botox Nancy’ made it pretty clear nearly four years ago, that we would need to pass this thing, that’s now not so fondly referred to as Obamacare at least by Democrats seeking to distance themselves from it, in order to find out what was in it. And as Americans have come to find out more and more about what’s in it, more and more of them are coming to not like what it is that they see. Or, they have now been made to be on the receiving end of what’s in it.
So much so that, apparently, we have now arrived at what is yet another new record number of voters who say that they oppose the 2010 Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, and a record low number of folks who are somehow able to support it, at least according to the latest Fox News poll. In addition, we also now have a pretty substantial majority of Americans who think Obamacare will only increase their health care costs, while few think it will result in improving their quality of care.
This new poll finds that 59 percent of voters now oppose the health care law, which is up from the 55 percent who opposed it just six months ago. And the increase in opposition comes from both independents and Democrats. And we seem to have gotten to the point where nearly a third of Democrats, or 30 percent, oppose the law, up from the 22 percent who opposed it in June. Opposition among independents has gone from 53 percent to 64 percent today.
Overall, only 36 percent of voters still claim to be in favor of Obamacare. That’s down another 4 point from the 40 percent who said they favored it in June, and marks a new low. I suppose it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that of those who proudly identify themselves as Democrats, 64 percent actually claim to still be able to support Obamacare. Meanwhile, it’s only 29 percent of independents and only 11 percent of Republicans who seem to like Obamacare.
Some apparent reasons for opposition to Obamacare include the fact that solid majorities think the new law will increase their taxes (63 percent), increase their insurance costs (62 percent) and increase the federal deficit (56 percent). Meanwhile, only one voter in five thinks Obamacare will increase the quality of their health care (19 percent). More than twice as many expect the quality of their care to get worse (39 percent) and another 37percent think it will stay the same.
This poll also points out that by a 44-36 percent margin, voters think that the quality of healthcare for all Americans will decrease rather than increase as a direct result of Obamacare. Also, voters disapprove of the job that Barry "Almighty" is doing on healthcare by a pretty impressive margin, 59-38 percent. His highest rating on health care was 48 percent approval in September 2012, while his lowest was 36 percent in November 2013. I guess he’s simply told a few too many lies.
And in adding to what many see as already being the too many to count problems with this Democrat conceived debacle, some lawmakers are now questioning the security of the healthcare exchanges and raise the possibility of identity theft for participants. The new poll finds 60 percent of voters lack confidence in the website’s ability to keep their information private. Thirty-seven percent are at least somewhat confident, including nine percent who are "very" confident.
Ok, so what are we really to make of all this? Now granted, the current level of dissatisfaction may very well prove to be beneficial, to some degree, for the Republicans in this November’s midterm elections. But what’s the best that those of us who are the most affected by this disaster, can hope for? Let’s face it, as we have seen on more occasions than I care to count, what we think about things far too often doesn’t seem to translate into action taken by those whom we elect.
And as much of an albatross as Obamacare may prove to be for the Democrats in November, Republicans would be foolish to make the campaign about just this one issue. I mean what we have here is really somewhat of a target-rich environment. We have the debt problem, our chronic unemployment problem, our stagnant economy, our out of control spending, needed entitlement reform, and the list goes on. So it’s important that we keep things in their proper perspective.
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