After eight years of trying, after gaining the House, the Senate, and the White House in large part on the promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republicans have succeeded only in damaging it. Popular vote loser Donald Trump's occupation of the White House should have signaled the beginning of the end of Obamacare, but instead what it has done is ignite energy and activism around not just preserving it, but expanding upon it.
Three times in the past year, the grassroots have defeated Obamacare repeal and Trumpcare bills. That fight over Obamacare has energized and activated the public on health care in general. We saw amazing success in Obamacare enrollments for this year, despite all of Trump's and the Republicans' sabotage.
Health care as an issue drove voters to elect Democrat Ralph Northam as Virginia's new governor, to overrule Republican Gov. Paul LePage's refusal to expand Medicaid in Maine by adopting it through ballot initiative, and drove voters to the polls in last week's special election in Pennsylvania, flipping a congressional seat to Democrat Conor Lamb. It is the dominant issue in polling in five Senate battleground states this year done by PPP.
And Obamacare remains above water in public support in the longest-running monthly survey of attitudes toward the law, from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Approval of the law still sits at 50 percent and the voters are anxious for more.
This month's Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds six in ten (59 percent) favor a national health plan, or Medicare-for-all, in which all Americans would get their insurance from a single government plan—including a majority of both Democrats and independents and about one-third of Republicans. Support for such a proposal increases among the overall public (75 percent) and among partisans (87 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of independents, and 64 percent of Republicans) when framed as an option for anyone who wants it, but people who currently have other forms of coverage can keep the coverage they already have.
Nearly 60 percent of the voting public supports Medicare for All! The eight years of fighting over what was a relatively conservative improvement in our healthcare system has made the public much more aware of just how much the government can do to affect our health care. It's made the issue more understandable, and it's made further changes to the system imaginable and popular. It positions Democrats to do what they've been talking about doing since the law passed: building on it to create a system that is universal and is affordable and accessible.
At the same time, the achievements of the ACA, including the real improvement Obamacare has made in the lives of Americans, can't be overlooked. For the final word on that, here's a message from Laura Packard, friend and activist, whose life has literally been saved because of the law. We will remain with you, Laura, fighting for the law and your life.