President-elect Trump last week said that he would simultaneously repeal and replace ‘Obamacare’. (Source: Reuters) President-elect Trump last week said that he would simultaneously repeal and replace ‘Obamacare’. (Source: Reuters)

For the first time, more Americans have shown positive views on Obamacare, the signature healthcare programme of President Barack Obama, which his successor Donald Trump has vowed to repeal on his first day in office. Americans views of Obamacare tilt narrowly positive, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, marking the first time more have favoured than opposed the law since its passage in 2010.

The shift comes at the same time more than 8-in-10 say the law is likely to be repealed and replaced by incoming president Donald Trump.

Overall, 49 per cent say they favor the 2010 health care law, more formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), while 47 per cent oppose it. Though a mostly mixed review overall, that’s a sharp improvement compared with previous polling on the law.

More have opposed than favoured the law in every CNN/ORC poll on this question from March 2010 until now. The shift in the law’s favour stems largely from Democrats and independents, while views among Republicans have not moved much, CNN reported.

Still, few feel the ACA has done much to help them personally. Just 22 per cent say they or their families are better off since the law’s provisions have gone into effect, and more, 30 per cent, say that they are worse off now. About 3-in-10 say that the law hasn’t actually helped anyone in the US, including 58 per cent of Republicans who feel that way.

The law undoubtedly helped reduce the share of uninsured Americans, with the uninsured rate reaching historic lows following the implementation of some parts of the law, but Americans by and large does not see it as successful, the report said.

Nearly 4-in-10 (37 per cent) say they consider the law a failure, outnumbering the 23 per cent who say they see the law as a success. That’s an uptick since 2015, but nearly all of the increase in perceptions of the law as a success comes among Democrats, 46 per cent of whom say so now, up from 19 per cent in 2015.

In the new poll, 14 per cent cited health care as the most important issue facing the country, up sharply from the three per cent who cited it last fall in a similar question about the most important issue in the presidential campaign.

President-elect Trump last week said that he would simultaneously repeal and replace ‘Obamacare’.

“It’ll be repeal and replace. It will be essentially, simultaneously. It will be various segments, you understand, but will most likely be on the same day or the same week, but probably, the same day, could be the same hour,” Trump said on January 11 at his first press conference in six months.

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