Most Wisconsinites Favor Keeping Affordable Care Act In Latest Marquette Poll

The number of Wisconsin voters who want to keep and improve the Affordable Care Act was twice as high as the number who want the law repealed and replaced in the latest poll by Marquette University Law School.

The same poll showed higher disapproval with President Donald Trump and U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan even as Gov. Scott Walker saw his best approval rating in more than two years.

Marquette surveyed 800 registered voters from June 22-25. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

The results showed 54 percent favored keeping and improving the ACA, while 27 percent wanted it repealed and replaced. Another 7 percent said they wanted the law repealed outright, while 6 percent said they wanted it kept without changes. Just 5 percent said they didn’t know what they wanted done with the law.

People also had negative views on the health care overhaul passed by House Republicans. Forty-nine percent said the House GOP health bill would decrease the number of people covered compared to just 20 percent said it would increase coverage. Additionally, 47 percent said the Republican plan would increase health care costs, while just 29 percent said costs would go down.

“At the moment it’d be hard to paint a picture that says the public is enthusiastic about a replacement,” said Marquette Law School Poll director Charles Franklin.

The number of people who disapprove of Trump’s job in office went up to 51 percent compared to 47 percent in Marquette’s March survey. Trump’s approval rating remained steady at 41 percent in Wisconsin.

Disapproval among Democratic voters hit 95 percent compared to just 3 percent who approved of Trump.

“That’s phenomenally low,” Franklin said. “Really unusually low.”

When it comes to Ryan, the Janesville native who oversaw the passage of the House health care bill, 44 percent viewed him favorably compared to 44 percent who viewed him unfavorably.

In March, 45 percent viewed Ryan favorably compared to 38 percent who viewed him unfavorably.

“This is the worst he’s done in our polling in quite a while,” Franklin said.

But this month’s Marquette Poll was the best for Gov. Scott Walker in nearly three years as 48 percent said they approved of the job he’s doing compared to 48 percent who disapprove.

Franklin said Walker hadn’t seen numbers that good since October 2014, right before he won re-election to a second term as governor and before he began his short-lived campaign for president.

Voters were also split on Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, with 38 percent viewing her favorably and 38 percent viewing her unfavorably, while another 23 percent said they had no opinion.

The poll found 53 percent said Wisconsin is headed in the right direction compared to 42 percent who said it’s headed in the wrong direction.

“People are a little bit optimistic right now,” Franklin said.

Franklin cautioned that June’s survey had a higher sample of GOP voters than usual, with a 45-45 split between Republicans and Democrats and 8 percent identifying as independents.

The typical Marquette poll over the life of the survey has had a partisan split of 43 percent Republican and 48 percent Democratic voters with 9 percent independents.