Senate GOP health-care bill has dismal approval rating: Poll

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Supporters of Planned Parenthood hold a rally as they protest the US Senate Republicans’ healthcare bill outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, June 27, 2017.

The Senate’s Obamacare replacement bill is faring no better with the public than the highly criticized plan that passed the House earlier this year.

Only 17 percent of Americans approve of the Senate GOP’s Better Care Reconciliation Act, versus 55 percent who disapprove, according to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Tuesday. Some 24 percent of respondents said they had not heard enough about it to have an opinion.

A separate USA Today/Suffolk University poll found only 12 percent of Americans support the Senate plan.

Senate Republicans on Tuesday delayed their plan to vote on the bill this week amid mounting opposition from the party’s moderate and conservative planks. Moderate senators have raised concerns about the possible growth in uninsured Americans and the plan’s rollback of Medicaid expansion. Conservatives have said the bill does not go far enough to repeal Obamacare.

The poll was taken from June 21 to June 25, even before the release of a Congressional Budget Office report that estimated the bill would lead to 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026.

Just 8 percent of Democrats approved of the proposal, while 78 percent disapproved. Some 35 percent of Republicans approved of the bill, compared to 21 percent who disapproved.

Independents disapproved of the plan by a margin of 68 percent to 13 percent.

The approval figures almost exactly mirror a March Quinnipiac poll on the House’s Obamacare replacement bill. That survey showed it got 17 percent approval and 56 percent disapproval.

The dismal approval rating complicates matters for senators who may be on the fence about voting for the plan. For instance, Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, a vulnerable Republican up for re-election next year, came out strongly against the current plan during a press conference last week.

The Senate bill could change as leadership seeks to make amendments or concessions to win over skeptical members.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll surveyed 1,205 adults and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 percentage points.