Opposition To The Individual Mandate Is Decreasing & Support For A Single-Payer System Is Growing

When the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) first became law, there was a lot of opposition to it. But that opposition wasn't to the entire law. Most people liked a lot of the changes mandated by Obamacare. The part of the law most disliked was the individual requirement to buy health insurance (without which Obamacare could not succeed). I think there was a great fear among many Americans (fueled by Republican lies) that they would be forced to buy insurance that they could not afford.

But it was never a part of Obamacare to force people into a financial hardship by making them buy insurance. The law contained some fairly generous subsidies for consumers to prevent exposing them to a financial hardship. Now, as millions of people sign up for that insurance (over 3 million at the end of January have bought private insurance and millions more are now receiving Medicaid), people are beginning to realize there was nothing to fear. They are getting better insurance for a cheaper price, and those who need it are getting government help to pay for the insurance.

And as the Obamacare insurance sign-ups continue to grow, the people are starting to realize that the Republicans were lying to them (and the president was telling them the truth) -- and their opposition to the individual mandate is falling. Back in November of 2011that opposition was a whopping 69%. And even as late as December of 2013 a clear majority (58%) opposed the individual mandate. But now that number has fallen to only 46%. For the first time, less than half of the public opposes the individual mandate -- and that number will continue to fall as the number of insurance purchasers grows. What the Republicans feared the most is actually happening -- the public is starting to accept Obamacare (all of it) as a good improvement over the old system.

But while Obamacare is being accepted and people see it has made some needed changes, something else is also happening. More people are starting to realize that Obamacare didn't solve all of the nation's health care problems, and that more change is needed. The support for a government-run single-payer health care system is growing -- something like a Medicare for everyone system. People are realizing that Medicare has been a huge success in covering all American seniors, and they are starting to wonder why that same kind of system wouldn't work to cover all Americans with decent insurance.

When Obamacare was being debated and discussed in Congress, only about 25% to 30% of the public supported a government-run single-payer health care system. That has now grown to about 40% (and the opposition to it has shrunk to less than half of the public). More Americans are starting to realize that kind of program has advantages (more coverage, less overhead, less of a billing nightmare for doctors and hospitals, and less cost for the nation -- as can be seen by other nations who use it), and fewer now see it as the "socialist nightmare" the Republicans have tried to paint it as.

These charts were drawn from a recent Rasmussen Poll (conducted on February 22nd and 23rd of 1,000 likely voters nationwide, with a 3 point margin of error).