Half of Illinois voters still support Obamacare: Simon poll

As the U.S. House considers repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act health care law, a new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University shows half of Illinois voters are still supportive of the law, known as Obamacare.

The poll — conducted March 4 through March 11 — asked whether voters agreed to repeal and or replace the current health care system put in place under then-President Barack Obama. The sample included 1,000 registered voters statewide with a margin for error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Overall, when asked the question “Do you think Congress should vote to repeal the 2010 health care law, or should they not vote to repeal it?,” just over one-third of those asked supported repeal (35 percent), half were in favor of retaining the current ACA (50 percent) and 15 percent had no opinion.

Within the 35 percent who supported a repeal, 29 percent wanted Congress to vote to repeal the legislation immediately, 68 percent supported repeal once an alternative was in place, and 3 percent either didn’t know or refused to answer. Voters in Chicago were the most supportive (60 percent) of the ACA, with those in suburban Chicago and the collar counties the second most supportive (52 percent); and the lowest levels of support (39 percent) were in the downstate areas of Illinois.

Only 13 percent of Democrats supported repealing the ACA; 31 percent of Independents and 66 percent of Republicans supported repeal.