If not Obamacare, what healthcare reform do Americans actually want?

As we await the supreme court’s ruling, we’re routinely told that Obamacare is unpopular. But that masks a more complex picture

By Harry J Enten

The US supreme court will decide on Thursday whether or not to uphold fully, uphold partially, or reject the healthcare bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in 2010. Much has been made of public opinion polls showing that the majority of Americans oppose the bill.

But can these polls be trusted? What do Americans really believe on the issue of healthcare?

Most Americans may not like Obamacare as a whole, but they seem to like it as long as it doesn’t include the mandate. Only 34% of respondents in the CBS poll approved of Obamacare as a whole, but 51% either wanted the bill kept intact or only wanted the mandate eliminated. A Fox News poll similarly discovered that only 40% of Americans favored the healthcare bill as a whole, but 51%, again, wanted to keep either the whole law or most of the law minus the mandate.  … Read More