Poll: Most want leaders to fix law, not undermine it

WASHINGTON — Message to President Trump and congressional Republicans: Stop trying to scuttle the Obama health care law, and start trying to make it more effective.

That’s the resounding word from a national poll released Friday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey was taken following last month’s Senate derailment of the GOP drive to supplant much of President Barack Obama’s statute with a diminished federal role in health care.

Around 4 in 5 want the Trump administration to take actions that help Obama’s law function properly, rather than trying to undermine it. Trump has suggested steps like halting subsidies to insurers who reduce out-of-pocket health costs for millions of consumers. His administration has discussed other moves like curbing outreach programs that persuade people to buy coverage and not enforcing the tax penalty the statute imposes on those who remain uninsured.

Just 3 in 10 want Trump and Republicans to continue their drive to repeal and replace the statute. Most prefer that they instead move to shore up the law’s marketplaces, which are seeing rising premiums and in some areas few insurers willing to sell policies.

Flying in the face of that, hard-line conservatives launched an uphill bid Friday to force a fresh House vote to revoke Obama’s law without an immediate replacement. The House Freedom Caucus filed a petition to force a vote if it is signed by 218 lawmakers.

Ominously for the GOP, 6 in 10 say Trump and congressional Republicans are responsible for any upcoming health care problems since they control government.

And by nearly 2 to 1, most say it’s good that the Senate rejected the GOP repeal-and-replace bill last month.