Prior to Trump’s election five months ago, Obamacare enjoyed its highest level of support in 2012, when Gallup polls found that 48% of Americans approved of it. By November of 2016, that support had dropped to 42%. Just five months following the election, though, that approval rating has increased to an all-time high of 55%.
This increase in popularity has occurred despite the law being one that Trump has focused much attention on repealing during his first 75 days in office. This increased approval rating is likely to hamper White House attempts to begin working again toward a replacement proposal, two weeks following the failure of its first attempt.
One reason for this backfire could be that backers, instead of spending their money opposing Obamacare, have focused their budgets on supporting replacement legislation.
Another reason for this paradoxical effect of Trump’s efforts could be that, despite Obamacare’s flaws, people still need access to affordable health care. This could explain its increase in popularity, despite 62% of Americans believing that we’re not on the right track on this issue, according to a Kaiser poll released in April of 2017.
Ironically, that same poll revealed that 61% of Americans would blame Trump, rather than Obama, for their dissatisfaction with the current system. Moving forward, Trump and the Republicans bear the burden of repairing perceived problems in the American health care system.