According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Wednesday, only 17 percent of American adults approve of the Senate Republican health care plan, the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
The survey found that 55 percent say they disapprove and 24 percent say they have not heard enough about the proposal to have an opinion.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Tuesday that he is delaying a vote on the legislation amid opposition from moderate and conservative members. Congress will resume consideration when they return from next week’s July 4 recess.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis that was released Monday found that the bill would result in a 22 million loss of health insurance for Americans over the next decade due, in part, to the bill’s rollback of Medicaid expansion, according to NPR.
“With numbers like these, it’s not surprising the Republican leadership in Congress is having a difficult time building consensus,” Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told NPR.
Despite the poll numbers, the GOP is still determined to push this bill through Congress, even with only a 51 majority vote.
Vice President Mike Pence has already been seen trying to woo GOP leaders to vote “yes” on the bill by having an exclusive conservative dinner party on Tuesday night.
To no one’s surprise, the Democratic opposition to the bill is high, resulting in only an 8 percent approval rate, according to the poll. GOP support for their own plan is underwhelming, however. Twenty-one percent of Republicans oppose the bill, and 35 percent support it.
While the numbers in the NPR poll show the lack of approval, another survey from Morning Consult/Politico would disagree.
Their poll found that 60 percent of Republicans approve of the Senate’s new health care bill, while 24 percent disapprove.
The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist’s poll was conducted by live interviewers using a mix of landline and mobile numbers from June 21-25, among 1,205 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
The Morning Consult/Politico poll was conducted online from June 22-24, among 1,994 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.