Public Overwhelmingly Rejects House GOP Health Plan

Many polls showed that the original health care plan put forward in the House of Representatives was very unpopular with the public. The Republican leadership revised their plan (making it even worse in my opinion) and finally got enough Republicans on board to squeak it through the House.

It turns out though that this revised House plan (AHCA) is just as unpopular as the original plan. Only 21% of Americans say they support the plan, while 56% say they oppose it -- and that opinion is shared by both genders, all age groups, and both whites and nonwhites.

Americans do want the health care system to be improved. They just don't think the GOP plan is an improvement. They don't like that states could opt out of benefits, don't like that older people would be punished with higher premiums, and especially don't like that the plan would make insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans.

As the second chart shows, the public overwhelmingly believes that health insurance should be affordable for all American citizens (96% to 4%). They don't want anyone to have to do without health insurance because it's too expensive to fit in their budget. The GOP may still believe that health care is a product that should only be available to those who can afford to pay for it, but that is not what most Americans believe.

These charts were made using information in a new Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between May 4th and 9th of a random national sample of 1,078 voters, with a 3 point margin of error.