Voters Disapprove of Republican Policy to Keep Health Insurance Exchanges Closed

Morning Consult: “Decision to Not Reopen the Federal Health Insurance Exchanges for Millions of Newly Unemployed Americans…  a Political Loser”

Republican Party “Already Faces a Trust Deficit on Health Care”

New polling today from Morning Consult shows that a majority of voters disapprove by a massive 20-point margin of Washington Republicans’ move to keep enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s federal health insurance marketplace closed. That reckless political decision is not just “unpopular” — it’s making it even harder for Americans who urgently need health coverage because they have been laid off in the middle of a public health crisis. Health care is emerging again as a “massive political liability” for Republicans this cycle, and its importance to voters is also hitting its highest point since the summer of 2017 when the toxic push to dismantle the Affordable Care Act failed in the Senate.

Last week, unemployment insurance claims climbed to nearly 10 million over the past two weeks and an estimated 3.5 million Americans and counting likely lost their health insurance, according to one data analysis — over one-third of the people who filed unemployment claims. Opening the marketplace would remove unnecessary hurdles for uninsured Americans to obtain the coverage and care they need.

One factor in the administration’s decision to refuse to reopen ACA enrollment in the middle of an escalating pandemic was “the president’s support for a federal lawsuit that would overturn the entire law” – a lawsuit Senate Republicans enabled. Every single Republican incumbent and candidate has either voted to repeal the health care law or expressed support for tearing it down. No GOP senators have taken meaningful action to stop the Republican lawsuit that would overturn the ACA and wipe away its protections, or to push the president to open a special enrollment period.

Morning Consult: Trump’s Decision to Keep Obamacare Exchanges Closed Is Unpopular

By a 20-point margin, voters disapprove of Trump’s choice not to reopen health insurance exchanges

By Eli Yokley

April 8, 2020

Key Points:

• The Trump administration’s decision to not reopen the federal health insurance exchanges for millions of newly unemployed Americans appears to be a political loser for a president — and a Republican Party in Washington — that already faces a trust deficit on health care. 

• A new Morning Consult/Politico poll found half of registered voters disapprove of President Donald Trump’s decision not to reopen the Affordable Care Act’s HealthCare.gov portal for a special enrollment period, while 30 percent approve. Fifty-three percent of Republican voters approve of Trump’s move, but 22 percent disapprove. Independent voters disapprove of the decision by a margin of 22 percentage points, while Democrats disapprove by a 67-point margin. 

• The decision has implications for large swaths of the country, as a recent Economic Policy Institute report found an estimated 3.5 million Americans likely lost their employer-provided health insurance in recent weeks. Nearly two-thirds of states rely on the federal health insurance marketplace, including much of red-state America, while six others use the federal platform, which controls eligibility and enrollment functions, to administer their own marketplace, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

• Trump’s decision… amid the coronavirus pandemic could provide a cudgel for former Vice President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats as they seek to refocus the 2020 campaign around health care, an issue that helped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reclaim the chamber’s gavel in the 2018 midterm elections.

• The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has hit Republican incumbents and called the move “indefensible,” and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has dubbed the decision on exchanges part of Republicans’ “crusade against the health and safety of the American public.”

• Already, since the pandemic captured voters’ minds in early March, the share of voters who said health care was their top issue has increased to the highest monthly average of Trump’s presidency since July 2017.

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