Voters Prefer Federal Exchange to State-Run Ones

Although the Supreme Court’s decision on King v. Burwell could remove subsidies from the federal marketplace, Americans prefer HealthCare.gov over the state-run exchanges, according to poll results from right-wing advocacy group Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA).

The more than 1500 respondents to the survey lean heavily right with 43% saying they vote mostly Republican and just 29% saying they vote mostly Democrat. Nearly half of the respondents were located in the South with just 5% in the West and 13% in the Northeast. The poll included only voters in the 34 states currently on the federal exchange.

The majority of respondents said that Congress and the IRS are to blame if the Supreme Court throws out subsidies on the federal exchange and that is shouldn’t be up to the states to fix the ensuing mess, according to the FGA.

“Obamacare is a federally-mandated national disaster, and voters don’t want to pay for more of it in their states if the Supreme Court guts Obamacare’s subsidies scheme,” FGA Chief Executive Officer Tarren Bragdon said in a statement. “They want action from Washington to clean up its own mess, and they want healthcare fixes that help everyone, not just people getting subsidies.”

Only 22% of respondents want their state to establish an exchange. Three-quarters of Republican respondents and 41% of Democrat respondents want states to ask Congress to make changes to the Affordable Care Act should the Supreme Court side with the plaintiffs.

The FGA assumes voters may be so against states setting up their own exchanges because of reported difficulties of other state-run exchanges. Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon have all abandoned their state exchanges after sinking millions of dollars into them. These 3 states now use the federal exchange.

“Voters don’t want a state-funded exchange, regardless of how the Supreme Court rules, and they don’t want more Obamacare costs and mandates,” Mr Bragdon said. “They want Congress to make fixes to Obamacare that help everyone.”