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Poll: 50 Percent Have Little to No Confidence in GOP Health-Care Push

Half of Americans say they have little to no confidence that Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare would make things better.
Image: U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, and  U.S. Representative Greg Walden hold a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington
From left, U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, and U.S. Representative Greg Walden hold a news conference on the American Health Care Act on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 7.Eric Thayer / Reuters, file

Half of Americans say they have little to no confidence that Republican efforts to repeal and replace Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act would make things better, according to results from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty percent say they have little to no confidence that these GOP efforts would improve things – a 16-point increase from February's NBC/WSJ poll, which was taken before House Republicans pulled their health-care legislation from the floor in March. (Republicans are trying to revive the legislation, but there still isn’t a definite path forward.)

NBC News

By contrast, a combined 21 percent say they either have a great deal of confidence or some confidence that GOP health-care efforts would make things better; 18 percent have an mixed opinion.

The NBC/WSJ poll also finds a combined 51 percent of Americans saying that Obama's health-care law is either working well the way it is (8 percent), or that it needs just minor modifications to improve it (43 percent).

That's compared with a combined 47 percent who believe the law needs a "major overhaul" (29 percent) or that it should be "totally eliminated" (18 percent).

Asked if Congress and President Trump should continue their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — also known as Obamacare — 40 percent say yes and 37 percent say no, while 21 percent have no opinion.

By party, 74 percent of Republicans believe the repeal-and-replace efforts should continue, compared with 29 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats who agree.

NBC News

Six-in-10 Americans Back Immigration, Free Trade

Also in the NBC/WSJ poll, 57 percent of Americans say that free trade with foreign countries is good, versus 37 percent who say that it is bad — essentially unchanged from when this same question was asked in 2015 and 2016.

Sixty percent of the public think that immigration helps more than it hurts — up six points from September 2016.

And a combined 67 percent of respondents believe that either immediate action should be taken to combat global climate change (39 percent), or that some action should be taken (28 percent).

By comparison, 22 percent say we don't know enough about climate change and more research is needed before there's action, and another 10 percent say that concern for climate change is unwarranted.

Highest Economic Satisfaction Since 2001

And on the issue of the economy, 56 percent of Americans say they’re satisfied with it, compared with 43 percent who are dissatisfied.

That satisfaction is the highest in the NBC/WSJ poll since 2001.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted April 17-20 of 900 adults, including more than 400 who were reached via cell phone. The poll has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.3 percentage points.