Most of Obamacare has kicked in already and Americans still overwhelmingly think that it’s hurting the country more than it’s helping, according to a Pew poll published Friday.
Forty-five percent think the health-care law has had a mostly negative effect on the country as a whole, Pew found. Another 18 percent think it hasn’t done much at all. That leaves just a third of respondents that believe Obamacare’s doing mostly good.
That pessimistic view of the law has actually grown since Obamacare went into action. In September 2013, Pew found that 38 percent of Americans thought the Affordable Care Act had a mostly negative effect on the country; just 24 percent thought at that time that it had a positive effect.
The Obama administration continues to struggle with glitches and problems with Obamacare’s technology and implementation, but the ongoing opposition to the health-care law is surprising, given that a number of Americans have taken begun to take advantage of some provisions — especially premium subsidies. But the remaining problems, from canceled insurance plans to rising health insurance premiums and deductibles, are keeping the health-care law unpopular. (RELATED: Report: Obamacare To Cancel Health Plans For 250,000 Virginians)
It doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon. Forty-six percent think Obamacare will continue to have a negative effect on the country in the future, while just 37 percent think it will have a positive effect.
That goes for Americans’ personal interactions with the health-care law as well. Just over a quarter of Americans say Obamacare’s negatively affected them personally, while just 19 percent said the health-care law’s been positive. Thirty-eight percent of Americans think Obamacare will hurt them in the future.
Obamacare’s underwater on pretty much every front. Voters are not enthused about the health-care law and most Democratic candidates are shying away from their Obamacare support ahead of November. Even the law’s supporters have made it a given that the health-care law needs a lot of changes to make it work. (RELATED: Voters Don’t Like Obamacare, And Probably Never Will)
Several polls this week found that just 34-35 percent of voters are in favor of Obamacare. A NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll found while opinions on the law are split largely on partisan lines, 51 percent of independents also disapprove of the law.