A majority of Republican voters say their top priority for Congress is to revisit repealing and replacing Obamacare by the end of the year, according to a new poll.
The poll results from Politico and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health were released a few days after four Republican senators unveiled what they called their last shot at tackling Obamacare repeal. The bill would provide Obamacare funding to states in the form of block grants.
The poll found that 53 percent of Republicans interviewed wanted repeal and replace to be the GOP’s top priority. Just 36 percent said reducing the budget deficit and government spending should be a priority.
For Democrats, 51 percent said the top priority should be lowering drug prices, and 44 percent picked the probe into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 election.
The poll comes as Republicans are mounting another chance to gut Obamacare. Republicans have until the end of the month to pass a bill through a procedural move called reconciliation that lets the Senate advance legislation with just 51 votes. The instructions to use reconciliation expire at the end of the month.
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Dean Heller of Nevada and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are the co-sponsors of the bill.
Cassidy told reporters on Friday that he is close to 48 or 49 votes on the measure. Republicans need 50 votes to pass the bill, in which case Vice President Mike Pence would be the tie-breaking vote.
The Senate narrowly defeated an earlier attempt at Obamacare repeal in late July. Since then, Republicans have moved on to tax policy, but GOP leadership is lending its support to the new effort on healthcare.
The poll was based on interviews with 1,016 people and was conducted from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3, so after a series of devastating hurricanes affected both Texas and Florida. The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
