WASHINGTON — Sylvia Douglas twice voted for President Barack Obama and last year cast a ballot for Democrat Hillary Clinton. Yet when it comes to “Obamacare,” she now sounds like President-elect Donald Trump. This makes her chuckle amid the serious choices she faces every month between groceries, electricity and paying a health insurance bill that has jumped by nearly $400.
“It’s a universal thing, nobody likes it,” Douglas, a licensed practical nurse in Huntsville, Alabama, said of Obama’s signature law. “They need to fix it with whatever works, but not make more of a mess like they have now.”
That Americans agree on much of anything is remarkable after a presidential race that ripped open the nation’s economic, political and cultural divisions. However, on the brink of the Trump presidency, a new poll finds ample accord across those divisions on the need to do something about healthcare in the United States.
More than 4-in-10 Republicans, Democrats and independents say health care is a top issue facing the country, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll showed. That’s more than named any other issue in the survey, conducted Dec. 14-19.
Still, there seems to be little agreement on what to do about it.
Democrats say they want to fix problems in the current program — among them, rising costs and dwindling competition — but not dismantle it. They warn that the GOP is threatening the coverage gained by 20 million people under the 2010 overhaul.
Republicans want to repeal Obama’s signature law but fear the political damage of stranding millions of Americans who secured coverage. Congress’ nonpartisan budget analyst lent weight to that concern January 17, estimating that a bill passed in 2016 to only repeal — not replace — the law would result in 18 million more uninsured people and a spike in premiums.
Trump says he has a plan, but so far he’s given no details. He told The Washington Post last weekend that his approach would provide “insurance for everybody.”
