How popular is Obamacare really? Would it be risky to hype Obamacare too much in a general election?

[Cheese Sandwich]

Obamacare is the Affordable Care Act.

People love the great parts of Obamacare like protecting people with preexisting conditions, and the Medicaid expansion.

On the other hand people in the US are still very dissatisfied with the health insurance situation including the co-pays and deductibles.

Hillary seems to make defending Obamacare a very central part of her campaign, even though most Americans don't like Obamacare according to this poll site: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html .

Most Americans favor a single payer health insurance plan like Canada has, according to this: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/229959-majority-still-support-single-payer-option-poll-finds .

So with that in mind wouldn't it be a really risky move to nominate a candidate that is hugging the ACA so close and acting like it's great, when most Americans don't like it? Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to run on Medicare for All, which is supported by a majority of people?

[DesertFlower]

1. i've heard good and bad about ACA.

i have medicare which is not great. need a supplemental policy with an insurance company.

single payer would be great, but ACA is a start in the right direction. do you remember how hard it was to get it through? that was with a dem senate and house. couldn't even get the public option.

ACA needs to be improved but plans should start to get single payer.

hillary knows how hard it was. she tried in the early 90s and couldn't get anything.

[forest444]

2. The Democratic nominee won't have to if they tout Medicare For All.

I wonder who might do so....

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. It saved my life.

(so far)

It is better than the nothing I had.
It is not the best.
I think we can do better.
I support single payer...
but...
It saved my life (so far).

[Cheese Sandwich]

5. It's saved a lot of lives. I definitely do understand that.

I'm benefiting from it right now a lot.

But it also has major problems.

The plans are divided into classes: bronze, silver and gold, I think. Some people who can only afford the lower class plans are getting stuck with huge bills for basic procedures.

Even though it's helped, people still can't afford to live.

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. I have a silver plan. I have big bills... but... it got me in the door.

You couldn't get in the door before.

[DesertFlower]

6. happy to hear that. can't imagine

being without health insurance.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. We always had insurance until MrG died.

With 2 young kids, I stayed on with our COBRA through his work at $2200/month. At the end of that period, BCBS booted me, and because I had RA and heart issues, I was labeled high risk, so I insured my kids on their own policies. And then a loophole in the first portion of ACA bounced both of my kids off their plans.*

So we held our breath for 4 years. I have big bills, but I can get in the door and it is better than holding my breath.


*The loophole: insurance cos stopped covering children on their own policies once the ACA dictated that children could not be bounced for preexisting conditions.

[DesertFlower]

16. i lost my husband almost 4 years ago when i was almost 70.

even though i was eligible for medicare for many years before that i stayed with his IBM plan. when he passed i went on medicare. i had a supplemental through IBM for a year but they changed it. i still get help from them. they give me an HCRA for $1,187 a year. that pays for my supplemental premiums with a few bucks left over for co-pays. even with medicare part D last year's drug costs came to $960. i wonder why i pay for part d through medicare and another supplemental policy for part D.

i'm paying $170 a month for medicare and another $78 for supplementals. that comes to $248 a month. medicare has a yearly deductible which just went up. it's $167 for this year.

i have no idea how much a policy would cost me if i didn't have medicare. i have pre-existing conditions too.

[msongs]

4. depends on whether the people who benefit from it will vote vs the ones who do not benefit from it.

[Ron Green]

9. That's not always the case.

As a disabled army veteran I get totally free health care. But I'm working to advocate for a state and/or national single payer system, for which I'd have to pay taxes.

Why am l doing this?

Let's see if you can tell the answer.

[ucrdem]

8. Healthcare and maintaining the Obama reforms were among the top 4 concerns of Iowa Dems

per a poll released last week. If I can find it I'll post it. But ACA is really not negotiable nationally among Dem voters.

[Cheese Sandwich]

11. How about the general election?

If you look that was the question. How popular is the ACA with the general electorate? Compared with single payer?

Which would more electable in a general election?

[ucrdem]

12. Basically Dems are for it, RW hates it, indies are up for grabs.

The distinction between ACA and single-payer is probably not even an issue beyond the early primaries.

[Cheese Sandwich]

14. No I'm asking in a general election which would be better for Democrats to run on?

Choice 1: We worked for 50 years to pass the ACA and it's awesome. We just need to tweak it a little bit.

OR

Choice 2: ACA was a good start but has major problems. We should have one National Health Insurance for everybody in America.

[ucrdem]

17. I think nationally it's the same question.

The single-payer gripe is pretty much an inside-baseball kind of thing that won't resonate. The Dem vs. GOP question will be ACA or no ACA. That's my guess anyway.

[Cheese Sandwich]

18. Well that depends which candidate we nominate

The Dem vs. GOP question will be ACA or no ACA. That's my guess anyway.

Well that depends which candidate we nominate

Obviously Sanders and Clinton have very different ideas about health insurance. If we nominate Sanders then single payer will be a major election issue. If we nominate Clinton then the issue will be Republicans wanting to repeal Obamacare and Clinton defending it.

[frazzled]

19. It was top in exit polls as well, and Clinton won that group by a large margin

30% of respondents listed healthcare as the most important issue facing the country (vs. 27% income inequality), and of those, 59% voted for Clinton, 1% for O'Malley, and 38% for Sanders. (see http://www.cbsnews.com/elections/2016/primaries/democrat/iowa/exit/ )

So I guess we can say that, at least with Democrats and Democratic-leaning candidates, sticking with the ACA and improving it is more popular than starting all over to try for a single-payer system. It's apparently also a more pressing topic for Americans than income inequality. Somewhat surprising, but the numbers is what they is.

In one way, it's not so surprising. I knocked on hundreds of doors back in 2004 in NH, and many people brought up issues of health care to me--a daughter with breast cancer, a husband with an ailment, etc. They didn't particularly have any ideas or positions on the issue--they just were worried about people in their family and what would happen. Health issues hit every family, so they remain foremost in people's minds. That was a year in which Iraq and foreign policy were more pressing issues among the intelligentsia and the left. I remember coming back to my oh-so-liberal town in MA, where I had to participate in a Democratic Town Committee meeting to discuss issues for the upcoming elections. Many good but very abstract issues were discussed, but I told them that my experience on the ground canvassing was that people were most interested in their own daily lives. When you go out into the real world, you learn a lot.

[tularetom]

13. It should be called the CA because there is nothing affordable about it

It appears that no effort has been made to enforce the 15% limitation on administrative costs and premiums are continuing to increase much faster than inflation.

When the subsidies end, which will surely happen in 2017 with a republican congress, Obamacare will effectively begin a downward spiral which will leave many Americans right back where they were in 2010.

The situation will never improve until the insurance companies are cut out of the process.

So in answer to your question, yes. Any candidate who supports this is making a big mistake. Of course a lot of voters don't realize what the future holds for Obamacare, so maybe it isn't such a risk after all.

[earthside]

15. It is getting less popular all the time.

It is better than what we had before.

But now premiums are going up again, deductibles are going up and up, and it is getting harder to find decent plans.

Obamacare is not the great program Mrs. Clinton seems to think it is. I know plenty of Democrats here in Colorado (where we have our own exchange) that are starting to get fed-up with the ACA.