Obamacare popularity drops in US: Survey

Americans' views of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul have taken a nosedive in recent weeks amid controversy over its poorly-functioning website, finds a Gallup poll released on Thursday.

With 40 percent of Americans approving and 55 percent disapproving the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, the gap now marks the largest division over the law this year, Xinhua reported citing the Nov 7-10 poll.

The poll comes as the Obama administration is embroiled in controversy over the Obamacare website, which has been riddled with glitches and technical errors since its Oct 1 launch.

The site, a centerpiece of the Obamacare, through which visitors can enroll in health insurance plans, has seen myriad technical problems preventing visitors from completing enrollment.

At the same time, an estimated two million Americans have been dropped from their previous healthcare coverage, as their plans did not adhere to Obamacare's strict new coverage standards, and some analysts predicted the number could reach the tens of millions.

The development has put Obama in hot water, as he vowed numerous times in recent years that those who liked their insurance policies could keep them.

The Gallup poll found that Americans' most common complaint about the new law is a philosophical objection -- government interference or forcing people to get healthcare -- mentioned by 37 percent of those who disapprove.

Twenty-one percent believe the law will increase costs and make healthcare less affordable. Eight percent specifically mention planning, design, or website problems; another 8 percent say the law is 'not working'.

In an open-ended question probing Americans' reasons for approving or disapproving of the law, 11 percent of those who disapprove specifically mention losing their insurance. Another 7 percent say the president lied about details of the law, Gallup found.

Some Democratic members of Congress, as well as former president Bill Clinton, are urging Obama to support legislation that would rewrite portions of the law to allow Americans to keep their insurance plan if they are being dropped from it, as a way to honour his pledge.

Many members of Congress from both parties are asking the administration to extend the deadline by a year for Americans to get health insurance before facing a fine, given the ongoing technical issues with the exchange website which are still being fixed. The White House recently extended the deadline by six weeks.

Obama announced on Thursday from the White House that those dropped from their coverage can get their plans back until next year. But the question remains whether insurance companies will be able to take those customers back at this point.

Meanwhile, Obama's popularity has reached a low point of 41.7 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics average, which many experts attribute to the failing implementation of Obamacare.

Experts said if the website glitches are not repaired soon, Democrats may feel the sting in next year's midterm Congressional elections.

What is Obamacare?

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act became law and was in fact, modelled after Romney Care (Obama's main opponent in the 2012 election), a healthcare reform implemented in the State of Massachusetts. The United States of America is the only advanced economy in the world where healthcare isn't provided by the State. All other advanced economies have a socialist healthcare system like the UK's NHS where people are taxed and everyone is provided with basic healthcare services.

A comparison of GDP spends actually shows that while the US spends 15.2% of its GDP on healthcare, France and UK's meagre spending of 11.2% and 8.4% helps reach out to more people. While these nations' healthcare systems reach out to its entire populace, the US has around 44 million people who are unable to get health insurance. Obamcare will allow people making less than four times of the Federal Poverty Level to shop for healthcare in a 'Health Insurance Marketplace' or exchange. This limit is around $46,000 for individuals and $93,500 for families per year. (Read: Obama defends Obamacare)

What India can learn from Obamacare?

There are two kinds of healthcare systems in the world capitalist or socialist. The US system is the biggest capitalist system while France, UK and the rest of Europe are the forerunners of the socialist system. In the first category, most healthcare resources are owned by private entities and in the second the state owns the resources, taxes the citizens and provides them healthcare.

There's ample evidence to provide that the second system works better because even though the US spends more per cent GDP on healthcare than any other country, the facilities aren't available to all, whereas UK's National Health Service or France's system which was deemed by WHO in 2000 to be best in the world. The success of the latter is based on the fact that most European countries have universal healthcare despite spending less than the USA (USA 15.2%, France 11.2%, UK 8.4%).

India sadly has a healthcare system similar to the US, in fact far worse than theirs. While the US spends, 15.2% of its GDP on healthcare, we spend only 4.1% out of which 70% is spent by people. Other similar economies like Brazil and South Africa (two of our BRICS neighbours), spends around 9% of their GDP. The problem is compounded by the fact that the private sector spends in India is more than double that of the government spends (a trend unique to India) which suggests that it's the absence of government healthcare which forces individuals to spend money out-of-pocket.

This hurts people even more and it's estimated that health spends forces 39 million people each year into poverty which reflects in our nation's woeful health stats. The latest figures from the UN suggest that India still accounts for one of every three maternal deaths. Most of them are due to complications like severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, high BP during pregnancy and unsafe abortions. As per latest UN figures, India accounts for one-third of deaths of pregnant women, mainly due to complications such as severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy and unsafe abortion.

We could sure do with a health insurance plan like Obamacare and universal health coverage to alleviate our healthcare woes. Till now, most schemes look to target the poorest of poor, like the NRHM and the RSBY (a national health insurance scheme) and there's no argument against that considering it's the poorest who need healthcare security the most. But universal health insurance system, where every individual's taxed for it might not be such a bad idea at all but considering our government's track record of spending public money, it would be optimistic to the point of foolishness to expect something similar. (Read: Ten questions you should ask your health insurance company)

With inputs from IANS

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