As pundits debate the impact of Obamacare on the special congressional election held in Florida on March 11, a headline from a new Bloomberg national poll actually does as good as any describing what happened in the Sunshine State: "Americans Stick with Obamacare as Opposition Burns Bright." That national finding also describes what happened in Florida, where swing voters supported the ACA, but more opponents turned out to vote.
The Bloomberg survey found the "highest level of acceptance for the law yet" in Bloomberg's polling, with almost two out of three (64 percent) of those surveyed saying they supported either retaining the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with "small modifications" (51 percent) or as it is (13 percent).
The troubling result in the survey for the political prospects of the ACA is that the one-third (34 percent) who want to repeal the law are much more likely to vote. No news here. We've known that the ACA is a highly motivating issue for Republican voters, who turn out at a much higher rate in off-year elections than Democrats and independents.
The real news is in the first set of findings, the growing popularity of Obamacare outside the Republican base. These findings were confirmed in the Florida election, when Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate, pushed back against attacks on the ACA from David Jolly, the Republican candidate, and independent groups supporting him.
Jolly's position was clear: "I'm fighting to repeal Obamacare, right away." So was Sink's: "We can't go back to insurance companies doing whatever they want. Instead of repealing the health care law, we need to keep what's right and fix what's wrong."
The key part of Sink's message was to remind voters why people wanted health care reform in the first place. As one of Sink's TV ads said, "Jolly would go back to letting insurance companies deny coverage." That's an effective reminder of the huge problems Americans have had for decades, when insurance companies could deny care because of a pre-existing condition, charge people higher rates because they were sick, even charge women higher rates than men. The ACA ended all that.
As would be expected in Florida -- and even more so in a special election -- the candidates worked especially hard for the votes of seniors. In their ads for Jolly, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee repeated their misleading charge from 2010, trying to scare seniors into opposing the ACA by saying that it cut $716 billion from Medicare. But unlike 2010, when Democrats did not respond to attacks on the ACA, Sink pushed back. She reminded seniors that the ACA actually provides important new Medicare benefits, including closing the infamous prescription drug "donut hole." Sink's ads accurately said, "His [Jolly's] plan would even force seniors to pay thousands more for prescription drugs."
By Election Day, voters had a clear contrast between the positions of the candidates on the ACA. It was a close election, with Jolly winning by a small margin (48.4 percent to 46.5 percent) in a district with an 11-point Republican advantage, one that has been represented by the GOP for nearly 60 years. But polling found that independent voters in the district supported the "keep and fix" position over the "repeal" position by a margin of 57 percent to 31 percent. Sink actually gained ground over Jolly during the election on the question of which candidate had a better position on the ACA.
The narrow margin is encouraging in a district with this large a Republican voter advantage, but still falls short of the turnout in 2012, when President Obama narrowly carried the district. Democrats will need to do better in November, if they are going to hold on to contested Senate races and have a chance of picking up House seats.
Fortunately, unlike in 2010, the Democratic Senate and Congressional campaign committees at least understand that they can't run away from Obamacare. Doing so will cede independent voters to Republicans, just when those voters are becoming very supportive of the "keep and fix" message. While Democrats would prefer to keep the focus on the economic pressures being faced by American families - highlighting issues like the minimum wage - they'll only be heard if they also engage aggressively in the fight over the ACA.
In fact, the ACA is an economic issue; just ask anyone who has lost her job and her health coverage. Or the millions of low-wage workers who can't afford to go to the doctor, or are trying to pay back medical bills from the visit they could not put off. As millions more Americans get coverage -- 11 million as of the end of February between the new exchanges, the expansion of Medicaid and young people under 26 -- Democrats should incorporate the ACA into their overall economic message.
Supporters of the ACA have consistently believed that once the ACA began to be implemented, it would become more popular. We're starting to see that shift. The challenge now will be turning that popularity into votes in November.
Originally published on Next New Deal