If you're hearing a lot from Democrats about health care this year, there's a reason: voters remain focused on it. Whether it's rising costs or keeping access, it remains a high priority for voters, and Republicans' Achilles heel. That's true even when it comes to Russian asset Donald Trump's Supreme Court pick Brett Kavanaugh, a new PPP poll finds.
Conducted on the anniversary of Congress's failure in repealing the Affordable Care Act and enacting the disaster that was Trumpcare, the poll finds that access to health care part remains the key, especially when it comes to Kavanaugh. Nearly two-thirds of voters—64 percent—are opposed to the Trump administration's intervention in a lawsuit, Texas v. United States, which could end the Affordable Care Act's protections of health care for people with pre-existing conditions. When respondents were informed that Kavanaugh "would likely support that Trump administration lawsuit," 56 percent oppose his confirmation.
More generally, the voters in this poll "trust Democrats over Republicans and President Trump on health care by 13 points (55/42)," with that lead growing to 26 points (60/34) among women and with independents trusting Democrats more by 22 points (57/35). As for the generic ballot difference between Democrats and Republican on this issue, it's a 16-point spread, with 56 percent supporting a Democrat who wants to keep and improve the law to 40 percent supporting a Republican who wants to repeal it.
Apart from the "who would you vote for" question, the "keeping and fixing" versus "repealing" gap is huge—25 points: 59 percent say keep and fix, and just 34 say repeal it. Independents have an even bigger margin on this question, with a 32-point (62/30) gap. That's fairly consistent with Civiqs polling on the issue, where a total of 55 percent are in the general keep and/or expand bucket and 40 percent are still behind repeal.
These numbers have been remarkably consistent for the past year since the Republican debacle of Trumpcare, which probably has a lot to do with it. Republicans were finally given the chance to do what they'd been promising for eight years and failed miserably, demonstrating that they had neither the ability nor the intention to make the nation's health care better. That hasn't changed in a year.
In fact, in a year's time the only thing that's changed is more Trump sabotage and more threats. This is definitely an issue for Democrats to keep in focus, and one good reason why none of them should fear opposing Kavanaugh.