Obamacare Approval Rating Drops To New Low As Enrollment Reaches Six Million
The Obamacare approval rating among the American public has dropped to 26 percent according to new Associated Press-GFK polling data.
The online poll — which also revealed that most Americans also doubt the Affordable Care Act will ever be repealed — of about 1,000 adults was taken from March 20 to March 24. “Public support for President Barack Obama’s health care law is languishing at its lowest level since passage of the landmark legislation four years ago, according to a new poll.” Interestingly enough, those who are neutral about the healthcare reform law, i.e., those who neither support nor oppose Obamacare, tripled from 10 percent to 30 percent.
About 60 percent of those in the survey who (or someone in their household) tried to sign up on HealthCare.gov or its state equivalents said they encountered problems with the enrollment process.
Last week, the Obama administration extended the previously inflexible March 31 enrollment deadline to mid-April. The White House now claims that six million consumers have signed up for Obamacare, although it is believed a significant portion of the enrollees have not paid for healthcare insurance, which calls into question the definition of signing up. “Like much else about Obama’s health care law, it comes with a caveat: The administration has yet to announce how many consumers actually closed the deal by paying their first month’s premium. Some independent estimates are that as many as 10 percent to 20 percent have not paid, which would bring the total enrollment to between five million and six million people.”
The 10 to 20 percent estimate may be an understatement. According to US Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), a medical doctor, the Obama administration is “cooking the books” on the enrollment figures. He added that “I don’t think it means anything… people want to know the answers to that. They also want to know… once all this is said and done, what kind of insurance will those people actually have, will they be able to keep the doctor they want, how much more is it going to cost them….”
On its fourth birthday and after many unilateral delays, postponements, exemptions, and waivers, the one-size-fits-all Obamacare law reportedly has insured less than two percent (about 700,000) of those previously uninsured at least according to some estimates. To accomplish this, millions of Americans already with health insurance coverage have (or will have) seen their insurance policies turned upside down, particularly in the form of skyrocketing premiums.
Do you think the Obamacare approval rating will change direction as the law moves further into implementation?
