April's
tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that months and months—years—of negative coverage of the Affordable Care Act can't be undone by a month of good news. While the largest percent of respondents—43 percent—answered correctly that 8 million people signed up for private insurance, 57 percent of them think that was a failure, that the target for enrollments wasn't met.
A big majority—57 percent to 38—also say that the law isn't working as planned even after early glitches were worked out. The law is stuck exactly where it was a month ago, "with 46 percent of the public saying they have an unfavorable view and 38 percent a favorable view," though that is an improvement of four points from the January survey. More importantly, though, is this:
Nearly six in ten (58 percent) say they want their representative in Congress to work to improve the law, while just over a third (35 percent) want them to work on repealing it and replacing it with something else. Like opinion on the law overall, this question is deeply divided by political party. Still, about three in ten Republicans and the same share of those with an unfavorable view of the law say they would prefer Congress work on improving it rather than repealing and replacing it.
Repeal is as unpopular as it's ever been with Democrats and Independents, but 62 percent of Republicans still want the law to be repealed. That's an expectation Republicans in Congress have created in their party that they absolutely can't fulfill, and that they now have to figure out some way to worm out of. So that should remain fun through primary season, at least.