Poll: Divided GOP Must Act on Obamacare

Republicans cannot afford to wait to act on Obamacare despite divisions in their party over what to do, according to a new poll from Politico.

In the survey of President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office, most of the respondents said they wanted him and Republicans to do something to change the Affordable Care Act, with less than one in five saying they wanted the GOP to move on.

The results:

• 14 percent said to repeal Obamacare completely.
• 19 percent said to repeal and replace Obamacare.
• 41 percent said to work with Democrats to improve Obamacare.
• 19 percent said to move on.

"Doing nothing on the Republican side is probably the worst of all options," said Robert Blendon, a professor at Harvard University's T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which conducted the poll with Politico.

The majority of Democrats, 58 percent, said Republicans and Democrats should work together to improve healthcare; 40 percent of independent voters said the same, but Republicans were far more divided.

• 27 percent said repeal.
• 33 percent said repeal and replace.
• 25 percent said work with Dems.
• 11 percent said to move on.

The poll also found that nearly two-thirds of registered voters said their vote in the midterm elections will be affected by the way Trump and congressional Republicans handled the ACA.

"The issue of healthcare, and particularly Obamacare, is now more salient to Democrats than to Republicans," the pollsters found. "Assuming this trend continues, this shift in salience suggests Democrats are likely to benefit in the 2018 midterm elections."

However, the GOP's continued efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare could help them in 2018. Politico reported Tuesday that the party has finalized a new plan they hope can gain traction with moderates and conservatives.

"Republican voters strongly want their elected officials to try again to repeal and possibly replace Obamacare," the pollsters continue. "President Trump and Congressional Republicans would likely face backlash from their constituencies if they were to move on to other issues at this time without repealing and replacing the ACA."

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