On MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports Tuesday afternoon, NBC News senior politics editor Mark Murray discussed the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that 45 percent of Americans support maintaining Obamacare, touting the health care law’s favorability as “higher than it has ever been.”
Despite the marginal increase in popular support, 41 percent of Americans disapprove of Obamacare. Additionally, a Morning Consult/Politico poll this month shows 52 percent favor repeal, while 6 percent support maintaining the health care law as is.
In the midst of ever-increasing premiums, such as a 116 percent increase in Arizona, Murray touted support for the law based on the latest poll. He said, "This is a question we've continued to ask since 2009 when the health care law was being crafted, so the health care law is more popular than it has in the past and you have to go back all the way before it's passed to find a point where the good idea outweighed the bad idea."
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Simultaneously, Murray remarked that the poll also showed that half of Americans have little to zero confidence that a GOP replacement will improve matters. "The question is, can they end up having a replacement and one that's popular with the American public," he said. He failed to mention that the GOP has drafted replacement plans.
The poll was conducted January 12-15 of 1,000 adults, half of them reached via cell phone, with an overall margin of error plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
Here is the transcript of the January 17th exchange:
ANDREA MITCHELL: Now we have breaking news on Obamacare. Our brand new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll it is more popular nationally than ever before. Mark Murray joins me now the new numbers, this as the CBO issues a report saying 18 million people would be taken off the rolls with repeal if there's no replace.
MARK MURRAY: Exactly. According to our new poll 45% of Americans who actually think that the health care law, or Obamacare, is a good idea, versus 41% who think it's a bad idea, and while those kind of seem to be mixed, not hugely popular numbers, that 45% in good idea, Andrea, is higher than it has ever been. This is a question we've continued to ask since 2009 when the health care law was being crafted so the health care law is more popular than it has in the past and you have to go back all the way before's passed to find a point where the good idea outweighed the bad idea. There's one other set of numbers in here I think that's very interesting. You have 50% of Americans, Andrea, who have little to no confidence in Republicans being able to come up with a replacement plan that works better and puts the health care system into a better position and so that is going to be a challenge for Republicans as we know they have the political power to be able to repeal large parts of Obamacare. The question is, can they end up having a replacement and one that's popular with the American public.
