The Washington Post calls attention to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey about how much Americans are prioritizing Obamacare relative to other health care issues this election season (emphasis mine):
The Post headlined its story, “This poll shows just how important Obamacare is in this election.” But notice the wording of Kaiser’s questions about the law. What the poll really shows is just how important repealing Obamacare is to people in this election. And, of course, few individuals would say that only “repealing the entire health care law”—the exact text of Kaiser’s prompt—is imperative. That’s why Republicans campaigning for office have at least had the courtesy of adding “and replace” to their refrain on Obamacare, even if they, including Donald Trump, haven’t always specified what their replacement would be. (Many conservative lawmakers, likeHouse speaker Paul Ryan and Senators Tom Coburn, Richard Burr, and Orrin Hatch, have proposed tangible alternatives to the law.)
The Kaiser poll also asked respondents if “repealing” Obamacare’s employer mandate and “repealing” its Cadillac tax were among their top health care policy priorities. They weren’t, and understandably. As Kaiser’s president said, “It’s just very clear in the polling that these consumer and pocketbook issues are the issues the public is much more concerned about—and, in a way, that just makes sense.” But one wonders exactly how familiar folks are with specific provisions of the health care law, now that the national political process has decayed into a reality television special. It’s not like this election has afforded Americans the opportunity to consider the finer points of health care reform. (Then again, which election has?)
Obamacare has been about 10 percentage points underwater with the public this year, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. And the Kaiser survey was performed prior to news that the average premium of a benchmark insurance plan on the exchange would rise by about one-fourth next year. The administration has insisted that the increased cost is of little concern since most marketplace consumers would simply receive more subsidy money to offset any rate hikes. But increased subsidies mean increased costs incurred by the government—and there are still seven figures’ worth of enrollees and potential customers ineligible for premium support. (Presumably, most of them are eligible to vote.)
