WASHINGTON -- Strong majorities of Americans reject congressional Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with legislation leaving more than 20 million additional Americans without health coverage, according to polls released Wednesday.

Just 16 percent of voters supported the Republican bills in a Quinnipiac University survey. Even fewer, 12 percent, backed the GOP in a USA Today/Suffolk University poll. And in a poll by Marist College for National Public Radio and the PBS Newshour, just 17 percent, supported the Senate Republican bill to repeal the existing health care law.

"Call it a dressed-up retread of the last GOP health care plan, or simply a wolf in sheep's clothing: Americans aren't buying this latest version of the plan to kill Obamacare," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

"And the dismissal comes with the dire warning: If you vote for this one, you may not be around to vote for the next version."

The Senate bill pulled Tuesday due to lack of support among Republican lawmakers largely mirrored the House legislation.

Both would raise premiums on older Americans not yet eligible for Medicare, both would penalize New Jersey and other states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and both would cut funding for the health care program for the poor, disabled and elderly while using the proceeds to reduce taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said the Senate's failure to act this week doesn't mean opponents have won.

"In the coming weeks, we must fight even harder. We must speak out even louder," Menendez said at a Capitol press conference Wednesday. "We can't go back to a time when health care was a privilege granted to those who could afford it rather than a right afforded to all Americans."

In the Quinnipiac poll, 58 percent of registered voters disapproved of the Republican repeal efforts, compared with 16 percent who supported them.

In the NPR/PBS/Marist survey, more than three times as many U.S. adults, 55 percent, opposed the Senate bill, as the 17 percent who favored repeal.

The USA Today/Suffolk poll had almost four times more voters, 45 percent, opposing the Senate bill, as supporting the measure, 12 percent. Another 40 percent said they didn't know enough about the legislation, which was crafted in secret without any public hearings or debate.

President Donald Trump, who promised during the campaign to protect Medicaid from cuts and to provide health insurance to all Americans, nevertheless embraced the House Republican bill and met with GOP senators at the White House on Tuesday.

In a tweet on Wednesday, he refuted the Congressional Budget Office figures showing steep reductions in Medicaid funds, insisting that the Senate bill increased spending. It does only in terms of actual dollars, way below what current law provides for to cover those receiving benefits.

Democrats purposely misstated Medicaid under new Senate bill - actually goes up. pic.twitter.com/necCt4K6UH — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 28, 2017

While Senate Republicans have been unable to get a majority to pass their health care bill, Republican National Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Wednesday said Democrats were at fault.

"It would be great if Democrats would come along and help," she said. "It would be great to find a way to work together and not make this a political football."

But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made it clear that he didn't want to work with the other side.

"My suspicion is any negotiation with Democrats will include none of the reforms that we would like to make on the market side and the Medicaid side," McConnell said after Tuesday's White House meeting, according to pool reports.

And Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York was the one who called for bipartisan cooperation, asking Trump Wednesday to convene a summit of all senators.

"It would focus about what you, Mr. President, have talked about in your campaign: lower costs, better health care, 'covering everybody' - not on tax cuts for the rich, not on slashing Medicaid," Schumer said. "We Democrats are genuinely interested in finding a place where our two parties can come together on health care."

The Quinnipiac poll of 1,212 U.S. voters was conducted June 22-27 and had a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The USA Today/Suffolk survey of 1,000 voters was conducted June 24-27 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The Marist poll of 1,205 adults was conducted June 21-25 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.