To: Interested Parties
From: Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director, Protect Our Care
Subject: 2018 Is the Year of Health Care
Date: January 2, 2018
In 2017, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress waged a war on our health care – from ACA repeal to Medicaid cuts to health care sabotage. Under their planned agenda, costs would rise, coverage would fall and millions of Americans would lose protections against abuses from insurance companies.
The story of 2018 is a simple one: it will be the year the politics of health care will haunt Republicans at the polls. Poll after poll shows that health care is the number one issue on voters’ minds and that they strongly oppose the GOP war on health care. Relatedly, the Affordable Care Act is more popular than ever, and more than 8 million people have already signed up for coverage in open enrollment.
Now, some Republicans want to keep their war on health care going. They do so at their political peril.
The American people see health care as their top issue.
- 48 percent in a recent Associated Press-NORC poll rated health care as their top concern for 2018, a number double-digits ahead of the second issue, taxes.
- Health care topped people’s concerns in a POLITICO/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll. The number one issue people wanted Congress and President Trump to address was to renew funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
- Health care was the most important issue to people in a recent Economist/YouGov poll (18 percent), followed by Social Security (17 percent).
The American people reject President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ approach to health care.
- The recent AP/NORC poll had President Trump’s approval/disapproval on health care at 30/70. More voters disapprove of his performance on health than any other issue.
- According to the November 2017 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, “The majority of the public (60 percent) – including majorities of Democrats (89 percent) and independents (57 percent) – do not trust President Trump to do what’s best when it comes to health care in this country.”
- FOX News polling showed only 33% of voters approve of President Trump’s work on health care while 60% disapprove.
And it will cost Republicans politically if they continue their war on health care, like it did last November.
- The latest Quinnipiac poll showed 41% of voters as being less likely to vote for a Senator or Member of Congress who backed the GOP’s health care plan with only 19% more likely to support them.
- Health care was the most important issue for people who voted in the Virginia gubernatorial race in November, more than double any other issue, and Ralph Northam beat Ed Gillespie by 54 points, 77-23, among these voters.
- In Maine, voters backed a referendum to endorse a key element of the Affordable Care Act by an 18-point margin (59-41), the first time the ACA had ever been on the ballot.
The Affordable Care Act is more popular than it has ever been.
- Pew Research Center: “Today, more Americans say the 2010 health care overhaul has had a mostly positive than mostly negative effect on the country (44% versus 35%), while 14% say it has not had much effect. Overall support for the health care law also has grown since last year. Currently, 56% of the public approves of the law while 38% disapproves, according to a new national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted Nov. 29-Dec. 4.”
- A Public Policy Poll for Protect Our Care found that 57% say they approve of the Affordable Care Act to just 36% who say they disapprove – a 21 point gap. This is up 5 points from a September poll done for Save My Care, where approval was 54/38.