Tom Price and Mick Mulvaney
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Tom Price (L) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney (r) speak to reporters after the Congressional Budget Office released its score on proposed Republican health care legislation at the White House in Washington, D.C., March 13, 2017. Reuters

With politicians on Capitol Hill arguing about the Republicans’ recently revealed American Health Care Plan — or Trumpcare, as some have dubbed it — American voters seem as split as their elected officials. Nearly half of Americans, 46 percent, either strongly approved or somewhat approved of the healthcare legislation meant to replace the Affordable Care Act. On the other hand, 35 percent of Americans said they somewhat or strongly disapproved of the plan, according to a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday.

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The most popular parts of the bill originally came from Obamacare. A large majority (71 percent) of those polled said they supported a provision that would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people who have pre-existing medical conditions. And 68 percent of American voters said adult children should be allowed to remain on their parents’ health insurance until age 26.

But Americans also saw limitations to the bill. For one, 64 percent don’t approve of a provision that would make people pay a 30 percent higher premium as a penalty for postponing their purchase of health insurance; 18 percent supported the provision.

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Thirty-six percent thought the ACHA would increase personal healthcare costs. In addition, 38 percent said the Republican legislation would decrease the number of people with coverage — a sentiment backed up by expectations from the Congressional Budget Office, which predicted the number of uninsured Americans would increase by 24 million in the next nine years. However, the poll was conducted March 9-13, before the CBO’s findings were released Monday.

Here are some other notes from the poll:

  • Uninsured people approved of the legislation at much higher rates than those who had insurance already: 51 percent without health insurance approved, while 31 percent didn’t.
  • When it came to Democrats, 53 percent disapproved of the legislation; 30 percent approved.
  • About 34 percent of voters said the ACHA would make the U.S. healthcare system better; 33 percent said it would worsen the system.

The poll surveyed 1,983 registered U.S. voters only, and its margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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