Public Says No To Obamacare Repeal & Signups Going Well

The chart above is from a new Rasmussen Poll -- done on November 30th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.

It shows the Republicans have put themselves in a difficult position by opposing Obamacare and repeatedly trying to repeal it. Only 30% of the public wants it repealed -- and I imagine all of them are in the GOP's teabagger base. This base went to the poll's in large numbers last month, and were able to elect a Republican majority in both the House and Senate. Now they are going to want those Republicans to repeal Obamacare, and they'll be angry if they don't at least try to do that.

But while the GOP's teabagger base still wants Obamacare repealed, most Americans do not want that. At least 65% say Obamacare should NOT be repealed (with 13% saying it should be kept as is, and 52% saying it should be kept and improved). This puts the Republicans between a rock and a hard place. They can keep the 65% happy by abandoning their efforts to repeal Obamacare, and risk losing to a teabagger opponent in the 2016 primaries -- or they can keep their base happy by continuing to try to repeal Obamacare, and risk losing that 65% in the 2016 general election.

I can't feel sorry for them, because this is a dilemma of their own making. It will be interesting to see how they try to squirm their way out of it though.

-------------------------------------------------------------

And things are not getting any better for the Republicans. The health insurance exchanges have opened up again, and in November at least 541,058 have bought plans through the exchanges. Some were re-signing or switching plans, but at least half were people without insurance. That's more people in just November than bought in the total months of October and November last year.

Slightly more than 8 million bought private insurance plans through the exchanges last year, and it is estimated that the figure of people who have private insurance thanks to Obamacare this year could climb as high as 15 million. And that could well happen. The daily average of signups in 2014 was 37,678, and for 2015 that daily average has climbed to 75,620. The number who qualify for Medicaid is also expected to climb, but not by as much (mainly because some Republican states still stubbornly refuse to expand Medicaid).