as president-elect donald trump and republicans in congress decide the future of the affordable care act, they ought to pay close attention to a survey published on thursday that shows that a large majority of the country supports the law<u+2019>s most important provisions. republican lawmakers and candidates have portrayed the 2010 law as an unmitigated disaster that must be repealed. but the new poll, which was conducted after the election by the kaiser family foundation , shows that many americans don<u+2019>t agree: 49 percent want the law expanded or implemented as it is and only 43 percent want it repealed or scaled back. what is most interesting about the kaiser survey is that individual provisions of the law are extremely popular. for example, 85 percent of those surveyed like the provision of the a.c.a. that allows young people to stay on their parents<u+2019> health insurance plans until age 26; 80 percent support the subsidies the law provides to low- and moderate-income people who do not get insurance through employers; 80 percent are glad that the federal government helps states expand medicaid to cover more poor people; and 69 percent like that the law prohibits insurers from denying coverage to people because of their medical history. critics of the law will point out that only 35 percent of the people kaiser surveyed supported the provision that requires nearly all americans to have health insurance or pay a fine. it is not hard to see why this provision is unpopular: many people do not like being forced to do things, even things that are good for them. but the insurance mandate is a linchpin on which the benefits of the a.c.a. depend. if people were not required to buy insurance, many young and healthy people would not buy policies until they felt that they needed health care. that would drive up the cost of insurance in aggregate because insurers and the government would be left covering mostly older and sicker people. mr. trump and republican leaders in congress seem determined to show their political base that they are going to repeal or substantially change the a.c.a.. but before they take a hatchet to the law, they should consider what most americans think about what the law actually does.
what republicans should know about the a.c.a.
vikas bajaj