Few American voters feel their family is better off under ObamaCare, and a record number would repeal the law if they could.
In addition, if comments by one of the health care law’s authors about lying to “stupid” Americans are true, over half of voters think President Obama or other administration officials are responsible for that deception.
These are just some of the findings from a Fox News poll released Wednesday.
Click here for the poll results.
Jonathan Gruber, an MIT economist who helped develop the health care law, has said several times that a lack of transparency and the stupidity of American voters were critical to getting the law passed.
The new poll finds 56 percent of voters are at least somewhat bothered by Gruber’s comments.
Gruber apologized for his “insensitive” comments during testimony before a House oversight committee hearing Tuesday. One night of the poll’s interviewing was conducted after he testified.
If Americans were lied to about the law, people are most likely to think President Obama (37 percent) or his administration (16 percent) is responsible for that. Another 32 percent blame Congress and 15 percent are unsure.
By a narrow 49-43 percent margin, voters think Gruber’s comments prove the administration intentionally lied about the law. That includes 26 percent of Democrats. Twice as many independents (54 percent) and nearly three times as many Republicans (72 percent) believe Gruber’s comments prove the White House lied.
Insurance plans under the new health care law took effect January 1, 2014. So far, 14 percent say their family is better off under ObamaCare, up from 9 percent in February.
Twice as many people say their family is worse off (28 percent), yet the pain may be all in their head. Consider this: 47 percent of Republicans say their family is worse off compared to just 9 percent of Democrats. And 62 percent of those who are part of the Tea Party movement say their family is worse off under ObamaCare.
Democrats are more than six times as likely as Republicans to say they are better off under ObamaCare (26 percent vs. 4 percent).
Over half — 57 percent — say the health care law hasn’t made much of a difference to their family. That’s down from 65 percent who said the same in February.
The poll includes a hypothetical vote question that asks people to choose between only two options: keeping ObamaCare in place and repealing it. A 58-percent majority would vote to repeal the law, while 38 percent would keep it. That’s up from 53 percent a year ago — and a record high number backing repeal (and a record low number in favor of leaving it in place).
The results follow predictable partisan lines: 67 percent of Democrats would vote to keep the law, while 88 percent of Republicans would repeal it.
Similarly, 60 percent wish President Obama had spent more time on the economy during his first years in office instead of reforming health care versus 37 percent who don’t feel that way. Those sentiments are unchanged since the question was first asked in July 2012.
Thirty-eight percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing handling health care. That’s two points above the record low 36 percent approval he received last November.
What do voters want Obama to work on right now? The economy is the top priority at 38 percent, followed by ISIS at 21 percent. Next on the list is health care at 12 percent, immigration at 10 percent and race relations follows at 9 percent.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,043 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from December 7-9, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
By Dana Blanton
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