Kaiser Poll: Overall Favorability of Health Care Law Stands at 34%

Click here to watch the speech.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) recently authored an op-ed in the AARP Bulletin titled “The New Health Care Law Works.”

The American people strongly disagree.  The latest Kaiser Family Foundation monthly tracking poll found that overall favorability of the health care law stands at just 34%.

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) discussed how each week Americans uncover another flaw in the health care law. 

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate:
Kaiser Survey Results

“The results this month are truly astonishing.  About half of all Americans have an unfavorable view of the health care law.

“Overall favorability of the health care law stands at just 34%.  An all-time low. The number of people who think that they will personally be better off due to the health care law stands at 18%, an all-time low.

“The number of individuals who think that the country as a whole will be better off due to the health care law stands at just 28%, an all-time low.

Medicare

“Medicare patients know that the health care law failed them and failed to address the broken physician payment system.
 
“America’s seniors understand that Washington Democrats can’t cut $500 billion from Medicare and then claim that those cuts won’t impact their own health care.

Medicaid

“When you look at Medicaid, governors all across the country know that the health care laws to Medicaid expansion will restrict patient access to care and very likely bankrupt our states.

“Medicaid only pays health care providers cents on the dollar. That’s why about 40% of physicians don’t accept Medicaid patients.

Health Care Premiums Increase

“In 2009, President Obama promised his health care plan would reduce health insurance premiums $2,500 a year for families in America. Well, the opposite has occurred.

 “On September 27, 2011, the Kaiser Family Foundation issued a report showing the employer average annual family premium increased 9% from $13,770 to $15,073.

“The employer average annual single premium—first there was the family, now for singles, premium increased 8% from $5,049 to $5,429.

Employers Drop Health Coverage

“President Obama promised that if Americans liked their current health care plan, he said that under the law they would be able to keep it.

"Well, over the last 19 months employers have made it clear that the laws mandates are too expensive threatening their own ability to offer health insurance to their employees.

“A reputable national consulting firm surveyed more than 1,300 employers across industries, geographies and employer sizes.  

“McKinsey and Company, found that overall, 30% of employers will either definitely or probably stop offering employer-sponsored coverage after 2014.

“Among employers with a high awareness of the health care law, that number of those who will either definitely or probably stop offering employer-sponsored coverage jumps to 50%.
CLASS Act Fails

“It’s now known that the CLASS program was an intentionally designed budget gimmick. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the CLASS program would reduce the deficit by $86 billion.

“These savings were mythical, and those savings came from the premium dollars that the CLASS program would collect for the first five years, all the while the program wasn’t required or allowed to pay out any benefits to individuals.

“Fast forward, we now know for sure that the program is not financially viable and does not work.
“On October 14 of this year, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen  Sebelius announced the administration will not complete the CLASS program.

“The Obama administration had 19 months to figure out how to implement the program. They couldn’t do it.

“Today, the White House still refuses to admit that the CLASS program is a colossal failure.  October 17, 2011, a White House spokesman said repealing the CLASS Act isn’t necessary.

“How can the White House admit that this part of the health care spending law will burden taxpayers with yet another unsustainable entitlement program and at the same time demand that it stay on the books?”

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