Despite robust support for the state’s Medicaid expansion, more than half of Louisianans still view the Affordable Care Act, the federal law under which the expansion occurred, unfavorably.
The latest installment of the 2017 Louisiana Survey, released today, found that 72% of Louisiana residents approve of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ decision to expand Medicaid last year while more than half—51%—disapprove of the ACA itself.
The ACA, former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, includes a provision that allows states to expand Medicaid for low-income people.
In Louisiana, support for the Medicaid expansion largely falls along partisan lines as 91% of Democrats and 72% of independents hold favorable opinions of the decision. And while Republicans were less enthusiastic, they too largely lean toward approving of the expansion with 51% in favor of the move versus 45% against it, the survey found.
Despite the overwhelming support for the expansion, Louisianans are more divided over the ACA, also known as Obamacare. The survey found that 51% of those surveyed largely disapprove of the federal health care law. Republicans were most likely to view the law unfavorably, the survey found, with 80% unsupportive of it. Meanwhile, 48% of independents and 22% of Democrats held unfavorable opinions about the ACA.
“Being told that the ACA allows for Medicaid expansion in Louisiana does not, on average, improve opinion of the federal health care law. This is true whether or not the law is also described as ‘Obamacare,’” the report says. “In contrast, describing the law as ‘Obamacare’ does increase the share of unfavorable opinions when the provision for Medicaid expansion is also mentioned. In other words, even potentially favorable information about a popular provision of the ACA is undercut by the implications of using the term ‘Obamacare.’”
Divisions for and against the ACA fell along racial, income and political lines, the survey found.
Residents who earned less than $50,000 per year were more likely to support the health care law while residents earning more than $50,000 were least likely to support it. Along racial lines, African-Americans and those who identify as “other” view the ACA favorably, with 77% and 54% supporting the law, respectively. White residents—63%—overwhelmingly viewed the ACA unfavorably.
Still, the survey’s findings indicate that Louisiana residents are softening toward the ACA.
“This partisan gap—which is nearly twice as large over the ACA as over Medicaid expansion—is largely a consequence of uneven softening of opinion of the law over recent years,” the report on the survey says. “Across the state as a whole, opinion toward the ACA has moved in a favorable direction since 2014 when the Louisiana Survey last included this question about the ACA.”
Today’s release is the fifth report in a series on the public’s views on state policy. Previous surveys in the 2017 report found that Louisianans overwhelmingly support equal pay and support a mix of tax increases and budget cuts to fix the state’s chronic budget gaps. Previous reports also found that Louisianans are optimistic about the direction of the state and want criminal justice reform.
The 2017 Louisiana Survey is produced by LSU’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs. The survey was conducted from Feb. 23 through March 23 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
