According to a newly released Gallup poll, more than 70 percent of people who bought new health insurance through government exchanges earlier this year said the quality of their coverage was “good” or “excellent.”
The poll also showed that Obamacare customers “are more satisfied than the average American with the cost of their health coverage,” 75 percent to 61 percent. And 68 percent of those with new coverage said that they were planning to renew their same plan for 2015, and seven percent said they were going to shop for a different plan but still purchase it through the exchange.
“As the healthcare exchanges reopen on Nov. 15,” wrote the report’s authors, “these data suggest that the currently uninsured will mostly be pleased with the outcome if they opt to use the exchanges to obtain insurance on this second go-around.”
With Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, they have made no secret about the fact they are looking to completely gut, if not repeal completely, the Affordable Care Act.
In fact, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) wrote in an op-ed piece for the USA Today this week that “Republicans will continue to push for a full repeal and replacement of Obamacare in the next Congress.”
And Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Richard Burr (R-NC), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) are all reportedly working on replacement plans for the Affordable Care Act.
But President Obama has two more years in charge of the country, and the Republicans lack the 60 votes needed to truly control the Senate. As Sam Baker wrote for The National Journal, “[Obama] is obviously not going to sign off on repealing his signature domestic achievement, making any replacement a moot point.”
And with the data showing that those with new coverage from the exchanges are overwhelmingly pleased with their plans, the GOP won’t have much popular support, especially in states that accepted the federal Medicaid expansion. Kentucky, for example, set up its own exchange, took the federal money, and saw more than half a million of its uninsured residents get healthcare coverage.
The GOP, including Kentucky’s own Mitch McConnell, can yell and whine all day about how horrible the ACA is, but numbers don’t lie. More Americans have healthcare coverage, they’re happy with it, and they plan on keeping it.
