A Majority Of Americans Support Obamacare Subsidies

The Republicans are still determined to destroy President Obama's legacy legislation -- the Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare). The have tried repeatedly to repeal it, but they know that is hopeless. Even if they could get such a bill through Congress, it would quickly be vetoed by President Obama -- and even in the Republican-dominated 114th Congress, they would not be able to muster enough votes to override a presidential veto,

So they have taken their battle against Obamacare to the courts. They lost the first big battle when the Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare was constitutional (with the exception that states could not be denied funds if they didn't expand Medicare). Now they are trying a different approach. They claim that the law, as written, only provides subsidies for those buying insurance through a state insurance exchange -- but does not allow subsidies to be provided through the federal insurance exchange.

And they have been able to get an appeals court to go along with that ridiculous view. Now the case has been accepted by the Supreme Court, who will make the final decision on subsidies. If the Supreme Court accepts the Republican argument, then millions of Americans will lose their health insurance -- because without the government subsidy, they will no longer be able to afford to pay for that insurance.

That would be bad enough for the Republicans, as it could cost them a lot of votes from angry Americans who lost their insurance. But as the chart above shows, a majority of all Americans support that part of Obamacare that provides subsidies to help lower income Americans buy insurance. In fact, only two groups oppose those subsidies -- Republicans (who don't think everyone deserves health insurance) and the rich (who have plenty enough money to buy their own insurance).

The Republicans need to be careful about opposing things that a majority of Americans support. They didn't win this last election because most Americans support their extremist ideas, but because most Americans didn't bother to vote (as is usual for a mid-term election). A lot more people will vote in 2016, and if the Republicans continue putting forth policies supported only by a minority of voters, they could be in for a rude awakening.

The chart above was made from a YouGov Poll done between November 15th and 17th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults (with about a 4 point margin of error).