Poll: AHCA, Medicaid cuts unpopular with Americans

Many health reform policies under consideration in the House and Senate are largely unpopular among voters, according to a poll conducted in seven states for the American Medical Association. No more than 26% of voters in any of the states supported the House-passed American Health Care Act, the June 13-22 poll in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia found. A majority of voters also opposed eliminating or reducing federal funding for Medicaid expansion, or providing federal assistance for low-income people to purchase low-cost plans that offer very limited access to care, among other findings. “Americans are not only overwhelmingly opposed to the current reform proposals, but they are opposed to many of the major provisions on which they are built,” said AMA President David Barbe, M.D. “Both the Senate and House bills as currently drafted violate the important principle ‘first, do no harm.’”