The Marquette University Law School Poll showed a slight increase in favorability for the Affordable Care Act from January to March, but there are still more who oppose the law than support it.
In the new poll, 39 percent say they have a favorable view of the ACA, while 50 percent have an unfavorable view. In January, 35 percent said favorable and 56 percent unfavorable.
“Within the last two months, we’ve seen a little bit of rise in support and a little bit of decline in opposition,” said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll. “You’re still not back to where you were in October, but you’re seeing a little bit of recovery toward that October figure…It was a net unfavorable view of reform in general before the HealthCare.Gov debacle happened.”
In October, before the problematic rollout of HealthCare.gov, 42 percent said favorable and 48 percent unfavorable, which is largely similar to national polling, said Franklin.
“We’ve been asking about (the ACA) since 2012,” said Franklin. “(Results are) typically similar to national polling, with more opposition than support.”
The poll, which surveys registered voters, also showed views on what voters prefer to be done about the law.
“Eight percent said they would keep (the law) the way it is,” said Franklin. “52 percent said they would keep it and improve it. The third option was repeal and replace, and only 18 percent picked that. The last option was repeal it entirely and not replace it, and another 18 percent picked that.”
Franklin said that while these results can be spun different ways, “voters overwhelmingly do not see this as the perfect health care plan and want improvements, but there’s very little evidence that people want to throw it away completely or want to start over again.”
Politically, the poll said 25 percent are more likely to vote for a supporter of health care reform, 28 percent less likely to vote for supporter of health care reform, said Franklin. 45 percent said it wouldn’t make any diffference.
The poll also said voters are 24 percent more likely to vote for someone who opposed health care reform and called for repeal, with 35 percent less likely and 39 percent “no difference,” said Franklin.
“The results together suggest that the public is in the mood for revisions to the program, it’s just unclear what the nature of those revisions are,” said Franklin. “I think there’s more political pressure to not simply vote for repeal but to vote for improvements.”
See more on the results from the poll here.
