Twenty-one percent of Americans approve of the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare that passed the House last week, a modest 4 percentage point improvement over the last poll.
The poll by Quinnipiac University released Thursday comes as the Senate works to draft its own healthcare legislation.
The poll showed that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of the House bill, called the American Health Care Act, while 23 percent didn’t answer the question or said they didn’t know. The poll also gave key insights into feelings on major sticking points over healthcare.
For instance, voters approved by a 64 to 32 percent margin the Obamacare provision that prevents all insurers from raising rates for people with a pre-existing condition such as cancer. The House bill would let states opt out of forcing insurers to abide by that requirement, but only if they create a high-risk pool and get a federal waiver.
Protection for people with pre-existing conditions was a last-minute hurdle for the bill, and the legislation passed by a 217-213 vote after GOP leadership agreed to add $8 billion to the pools over five years.
About 75 percent of voters, including 59 percent of Republicans, believe it is a “bad idea” to give states the ability to let insurers to raise rates on people with pre-existing conditions, Quinnipiac said.
In a small silver lining, popularity for the bill did increase slightly since the last poll was conducted March 23, a few days before an earlier version of the AHCA was pulled form the House floor due to insufficient support.
That Quinnipiac poll had the disapproval rating at 17 percent.
The current poll released Thursday was based on 1,078 voters nationwide and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
