Public Opposes Trumpcare (And Plans With Fewer Benefits)

The Senate adjourned for the 4th of July holiday without passing a replacement plan for Obamacare. And many of those GOP senators have been ducking their constituents during that holiday. That's because the public really hates their plan to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare -- by a 20 point margin (27% if favor and 47% opposed).

The second chart shows many things that Obamacare required to be in insurance policies sold to the public. However, during the recess, Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Mike Lee (Utah) have come up with an amendment to Trumpcare, which they are trying to get their cohorts to approve.

That amendment would allow insurance companies to sell policies that don't include all (or maybe even any) of the benefits required by Obamacare. These policies would be cheaper, because they wouldn't cover a lot of things -- but consumers buying them could find themselves owing huge medical bills because their policies didn't cover their needs (especially if they, or a family member, got a serious illness). These people could find medical care denied, or be forced into bankruptcy.

Cruz and Lee are sadly mistaken if they think their silly amendment will make the public like Trumpcare better. As the second chart above shows, overwhelming majorities of Americans like the benefits required by Obamacare (even those who say they don't like Obamacare), and they don't want those benefits taken away just so insurance companies can sell a cheaper policy without them.

The chart below is interesting. It shows that while only 27% support Trumpcare, many more would support a single-payer system of health insurance that covered all Americans --about 42%, while only 31% say they would be opposed. But while that 11 point gap is encouraging, it is still not a majority (with about 27% still unsure about single-payer). Single-payer proponents need to work on that 27%, because our politicians won't consider single-payer until a substantial majority supports it.

All of these charts reflect informations in a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done on July 3rd and 4th of a random national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,323 registered voters), with a 3.1 point margin of error.