Poll shows 57% of American voters disapprove of the Republican health care bill

A new poll from Quinnipiac Univesity has found that 57% of American voters disapprove of the health care bill Republicans are currently trying to push through Congress.

The American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed through the House of Representatives in early May after an earlier vote was pulled due to a lack of support.

According to Quinnipiac, only 20% of voters support the legislation which now has an uphill battle to pass through the Senate with enough support.

President Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign on a pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also know as Obamacare, something the AHCA does in essence.

Although damning, other numbers from the poll are likely to worry members of Congress much more. Some 44% of voters said they are less likely to vote for a member of Congress who supports the bill while only 20% say support for the bill would make the more likely to vote for a congressperson.

The strongest support is unsurprisingly from Republican voters but even there only 42% approve of the legislation against 24% who disapprove. Only 47% of Republican voters said they were more likely to vote for their congressperson if they supported the bill.

Among independents, only 20% say they approve of the AHCA, while 56% disapprove. 41% of independents say they are less likely to vote for a congressperson if they support the bill.

A new analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the AHCA would leave 51 million Americans without health insurance by 2026, 23 millions more than would be uninsured if the current legislation was left unchanged.

Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, generally seen at the main figure behind the AHCA, focused on a different part of the analysis which said that the legislation would reduce the cumulative federal deficit by $119m by 2026 lead to lower insurance premiums, though the report said this was partly due to reduced coverage.