People hold up signs during a constituent town hall meeting with Maryland Rep. Andy Harris at Chesapeake College on March 31. | Getty Poll: Just 21 percent approve of House’s Obamacare repeal bill

Less than a quarter of American voters surveyed in a new poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University approve of the legislation passed last week by the House of Representatives to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Fifty-six percent of those polled said they disapprove of the legislation, dubbed the American Health Care Act, while just 21 percent said they support it. The support for the legislation represents an improvement over the 17 percent who said they supported the iteration of the bill that failed to pass the House in March.


Overall 66 percent said they disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of healthcare, while 32 percent said they approve of it.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said the AHCA will hurt the nation, while 29 percent said it will help it and 13 percent said it will have no impact. Republican voters – 48 percent of whom supported the AHCA in the poll – were the only group with a positive view of the bill. Every other gender, party, age, educational and racial group opposed the legislation.

The legislation has proven especially controversial because it offers states the option to pull out of an Obamacare provision mandating that insurers not charge individuals with preexisting conditions more for coverage. Both Trump and GOP leadership had promised than any Obamacare replacement leave intact protections for those with preexisting conditions.

The repeal-and-replace legislation removes the mandate that all Americans purchase health insurance or else pay a penalty and also undoes a requirement that insurers cover certain services and conditions.

Seventy-five percent of respondents – and 59 percent of Republicans – said it is a “bad idea” to allow states to opt out of cost-lowering protections for those with preexisting conditions. Sixty-four percent of those polled said they approved of the current Obamacare provision that stops insurance companies from charging more for those with preexisting conditions.

Asked about the president’s proposal to reform the tax code, 74 percent of respondents and 66 percent of Republicans said they would disapprove of it if it “significantly” increases the national debt, something Trump told The Economist in an interview released Thursday could be possible in the short term. Forty-six percent said they would approve of the tax plan if it resulted in spending cuts, while 45 percent said they would disapprove in such a scenario.

Among those polled, 49 percent said Trump’s tax plan would hurt the nation while 29 percent said it will help it and 13 percent said it will not have an impact. Sixty-three percent said the wealthy will benefit the most under the president’s proposal, while 27 percent said the same of the middle class.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted from May 4-9, reaching 1,078 voters nationwide via landlines and cell phones. The poll’s margin of error was plus-or-minus three percentage points.