Poll: Voters Warming To Obamacare

The GOP

Still crazy after all these years.

Poll: Another silver lining for Democrats? "Voters are split over whether they would support a candidate who voted for the Affordable Care Act, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday. For supporters of the healthcare law, the poll's findings are a marked improvement from November, when only 21 percent said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports ObamaCare, 37 said they would be less likely, and 40 said they were indifferent." Jonathan Easley in The Hill.

@ezraklein: Compared to 2010 estimates, Obamacare is costing less than CBO expected: http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/chart-of-the-day-cbos-obamacare-projections-then-and-now/ ... pic.twitter.com/xYdgQsyD4P

Obama administration to rewrite some health-care policies. "The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it has rewritten an array of far-reaching rules under the Affordable Care Act, the most significant of which will let people keep bare-bones health insurance policies for three more years....In announcing many rules at the same time, senior administration officials portrayed it as a move to address early in the year every major issue that needed to be resolved about how exactly the health-care law will work for 2015 -- in contrast to the chaos and lurching policy shifts that surrounded the launch of the exchanges last fall....The law's Republican critics swiftly denounced the new rules, singling out for particular criticism the decision to let insurers continue to sell -- and customers continue to buy -- skimpy health plans that fail to provide all the benefits required under the law." Amy Goldstein and Sandhya Somashekhar in The Washington Post.

All while Republicans voted to gut or scale back the health care law a 50th time. 27 Democrats joined in. "The Republican-led House voted Tuesday to delay Obamacare's individual mandate for one year, even though the enrollment period for the year is nearly over and the impact of the bill would be significantly reduced. The final vote was 250-160. Twenty-seven Democrats joined all but one Republican in voting to delay by one year the health care law's requirement that uninsured Americans get covered or pay a tax penalty of at least $95 in the first year. It was the House's 50th vote to repeal or dismantle the law since Republicans took over the chamber in 2011....Republicans saw the measure as ripe for politicking ahead of the November congressional elections, given the unpopularity of the individual mandate." Sahil Kapur in Talking Points Memo.

@sarahkliff: The House just took its 50th repeal vote on Obamacare. Obamacare is still not repealed.

@DavidCornDC: I think they're trying to break Joe DiMaggio's record.

Vulnerable Dems huddle over Obamacare fixes. "The White House took the rare step of naming more than a dozen Democrats it worked "in close consultation" with ahead of a Wednesday announcement about changes to the Affordable Care Act. All of the Democrats the administration cited are up for reelection in 2014, and most are either vulnerable, or find themselves early targets by the GOP for their past support of ObamaCare. Prolonging the 'keep your plan' fix to accommodate for President Obama's broken promise about the law will avoid another wave of health policy cancellations otherwise expected in critical weeks before Election Day in 2014." Jonathan Easley in The Hill.

Not all doom-and-gloom, though. "Still, big parts of the law are already in place this year. Insurance companies are no longer denying policies to people who have a black mark on their health history, or charging them more. Many policies are more robust, and include coverage of preventive services without out-of-pocket costs. And lower-income earners can get tax credits toward the cost of premiums, and some are paying less for coverage as a result. Millions of younger Americans have stayed on their parents' health plans until their 26th birthdays--a provision so popular that some GOP lawmakers opposed to the law as a whole want to keep it." Louise Radnofsky in The Wall Street Journal.

MCLAUGHLIN AND MCLAUGHLIN: Obamacare can't be the GOP's 2014 silver bullet. "Many Republican strategists now see this as a parallel dynamic similar to what the Iraq War issue did in 2006 to President Bush's job approval, costing the Republicans their Senate and House majorities. The Democrats' 2006 strategy was simple: Drive up the disapproval of the Iraq War, which drove up President Bush's disapproval, which drove up the vote for Democrats for Congress....In our poll 20 percent of all voters nationally disapprove of Obama but do not yet say they'll vote to elect Republicans to Congress. These voters will decide the November election. Among those who disapprove of Obama but aren't planning to vote GOP, fully 36 percent are still voting for a Democrat for Congress. The other 64 percent remain undecided. In other words, opposition to Obama is not a 'silver bullet' strategy." John McLaughlin and Jim McLaughlin in National Review.

BEUTLER: 50th time still isn't the charm. "Prior to this year, voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act was a freebie....Now it comes with a cost. Now it's a statement of intent to annul millions of people's healthcare benefits....For opportunistic reasons, conservatives have worked party activists into an incredible lather over the Affordable Care Act over the years, which means they can't now, without warning, implicitly admit that the law can be molded into something tolerable....This is self-evidently spiteful and unserious. It also requires spending money, which means it probably can't pass the House. But the alternatives are a) writing an Obamacare alternative that tosses millions of people off of their new health plans and leaves them with nothing, and b) not repealing Obamacare. I think I know which one they're going to pick." Brian Beutler in Salon.