Support for the Obamacare health care reforms remains solid in California, a non-partisan survey finds.
55 percent of Californians surveyed backed the changes being made to the health care system under the Affordable Care Act. Opposed were 37 percent.
Predictably, the support clustered along party lines. Three-quarters of Democrats were in favor (76 percent) while more than three-quarters of Republicans opposed the changes.
Support is up 8 percentage points since March 2012, the PPIC Statewide Survey reported. The group spoke on the phone with 1,704 adult Californians between Jan. 15 and Jan. 22, 2913.
The research group hosted the daylong conference the “The Future of Health Care in California” on March 13, It addressed the sweeping changes in state health care policies and the Medi-Cal expansions. (Video below).
Meanwhile, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in late March found that nationwide, two-thirds of the uninsured and a majority of Americans weren’t sure how the changes would affect them. That nationwide poll reflected some significant differences from the PPIC survey taken in California.
In the California survey, health care reforms found broad support from 6 in 10 people surveyed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the more conservative Orange County/San Diego region, about half were in favor.
Latinos strongly backed Obamacare, while a minority of whites were in support.
Among those with insurance, 54 percent statewide said they liked the reforms. That number rose slightly with respondents without health care coverage (58 percent).
Income also did not appear to be a significant predictor of responses, although the most support for the health care changes came from households making under $40,000 a year.
When asked if their families would be better off or worse off under Obamacare, 48 percent said it would not make a difference; 25 percent said better; and 23 percent said worse.
A majority of Republicans (53 percent) said the health care reform would make things worse for their families.
In Kaiser’s nationwide poll, 29 percent said the Affordable Care Act will make them worse off, 21 percent said it will make them better off, and four in 10 said it won’t make much difference. Read about the Kaiser phone poll on PDF.
Only 41 percent of those in the nationwide poll said they had enough information to know if the health reform law would positively affect them. That’s the second-lowest percentage since the tracking poll began in 2010.
The PPIC Statewide Survey was conducted with funding from The James Irvine Foundation. Read about the survey on PDF.
On March 13, PPIC hosted the event “The Future of Health Care in California.” Here are highlights:
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