Republicans focusing on repealing the Affordable Care Act might want to consider yet another feature of the law Americans want to keep: Medicaid expansion.
ABC News reports 80 percent of survey respondents say lawmakers should preserve federal funding that resulted in the addition of 11 million low-income people to Medicaid rolls in states that expanded the program.
The Kaiser Family Foundation survey reveals strong support across party lines for keeping Medicaid expansion funding. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans say lawmakers should continue to provide the money, as do 84 percent of independents and 95 percent of Democrats.
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Overall, 84 percent of Americans have weighed to say it's important that politicians continue to fund Medicaid expansion in any replacement for the ACA.
Thirty-one states, plus the District of Columbia, have expanded Medicaid under the ACA. Within the 16 states that expanded Medicaid and also have Republican governors, the survey shows high numbers in support of retention of the expansion; 87 percent of residents say they want the additional funding to continue.
And when it comes to future financing of Medicaid, nearly 2 in 3 say the program should continue as is. Currently the federal government matches a percentage of each state's Medicaid costs, with no upper limit on funding.
Republican plans that have been publicly discussed so far lean toward vouchers or block grant transformation of the program, with dollar limits on how much would be provided for states to use in paying for care. That would result in reduced coverage for those currently relying on the program for health care.
Robert Blendon, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who reviewed the poll results, is quoted in the article saying, "This is going to turn out to be one of the biggest political issues of [Republicans] reaching agreement on 'repeal and replace.'"
He adds, "Republican House members can take criticism from Democrats, but they really cannot take criticism from their own governors. Republican governors are going to feel like they are left holding the bag."
Poll responses indicate more than half of Americans say they have some personal connection to Medicaid, either because they have been helped directly, or a family member or close friend has.
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