The House Freedom Caucus will file a petition Friday in an effort to get House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to bring a “clean” Obamacare repeal bill to the House floor, despite the fact that 60 percent of Americans think it is a “good thing” that the Senate failed to pass the bill that would have repealed and replaced Obamacare.
The news that Republicans in Congress will once again attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was first reported by Politico on Friday — the same day that a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation was released showing that most Americans are happy with the ACA. According to the poll, 52 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the ACA, while 39 percent have an unfavorable view.
As KFF notes, the percent of Americans who view the ACA favorably has increased nine percent since the 2016 election, among Democrats, independents, and Republicans.
Republicans in Congress have tried and failed several times to repeal Obamacare. Most recently, a “skinny repeal” proposal was killed in the middle of the night after a shocking no vote from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Since then, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said it’s “time to move on,” while President Trump has said Congress should continue to work to repeal the ACA.
Senator Mitch McConnell said I had "excessive expectations," but I don't think so. After 7 years of hearing Repeal & Replace, why not done?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 9, 2017
Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn't get it done. Must Repeal & Replace ObamaCare!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2017
Friday’s poll found that 62 percent of Americans disagree with Trump’s approach, while 34 percent agree with him.
They also found that a majority of Americans (57 percent) want Republicans in Congress to work with Democrats to fix Obamacare. Twenty-one percent of Americans say they want Republicans to continue working to repeal and replace the ACA, and another 21 percent want Republicans to move on from health care and focus on other issues.
About half of Republicans and Trump supporters said they believe Republicans should continue working to repeal the ACA.
Mitch, get back to work and put Repeal & Replace, Tax Reform & Cuts and a great Infrastructure Bill on my desk for signing. You can do it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2017
Obamacare, a signature achievement of former President Obama, has been in rocky territory that has only been made worse by the Trump administration. Recently, insurers requested rates for 2018, and many insurers requested rate increases, which they attributed to concerns that Trump will not enforce the individual mandate and that he may stop making cost-sharing reduction payments to insurers.
The bill that the House Freedom Caucus plans to push for is a “clean” Obamacare repeal bill, similar to the “repeal and delay plan” that failed in the Senate earlier this summer. The bill was passed by Republicans in both chambers during the Obama years.
If Friday’s petition gets 218 signatures, it will force a floor vote. As Politico noted, Trump is likely to weigh in, as the president has been frustrated by the failure to repeal Obamacare and is close with a number of Freedom Caucus members.