Poll: Majority Of Americans Want Changes To Affordable Care Act

A Gallup poll released Friday finds that despite the glitches that have plagued the Affordable Care Act website since its October launch, the percentage of Americans who want the law scaled back or entirely repealed has hardly changed from two years ago.

According to the poll, 20 percent of Americans – 5 percent less than back in 2011 – want Congress to change or scale back the law; 32 percent – the same percentage of Americans who said the same in 2011 — say they want Congress to repeal it. The total 52 percent who favor one of the two options is a significantly small increase from the 50 percent who also chose either option back in early October, after the HealthCare.gov website first began experiencing problems.

The poll also finds that 20 percent of Americans now say they want Congress to “change or expand” the law, up from 14 percent in October. Another 17 percent say they want the law to remain as is.

Republicans and Democrats remain divided, with 68 percent of Republicans saying they want Congress to repeal the health care law — up from the 57 percent who said the same in October – and 34 percent of Democrats saying they want Congress to expand it – up from the 22 percent who said the same in October.

Overall, 90 percent of Republicans want the law repealed or scaled back, and 65 percent of Democrats want it expanded or kept as is.

The numbers are not too surprising, considering that another Gallup poll conducted in November found that a majority of Americans – 54 percent – disapprove of Obamacare, while 40 percent approve.

Still, Gallup notes that although 37 percent of Americans say they want the law expanded or kept as is as opposed to the majority 52 percent who want it repealed or scaled back, “the fact that 32 percent want an outright repeal, compared with 54 percent who disapprove of the law, suggests that some of those who disapprove still do not want to do away with law altogether” — a glimmer of hope for President Barack Obama’s health care reform.

The poll was conducted from December 3-4 and surveyed 1,017 adults. It has a margin of error +/- 4 percent.

Photo: Southerntabitha via Flickr