Americans overwhelmingly want the GOP to work with Democrats on health care

Two new polls on Thursday show a sizable bipartisan majority of Americans wanting Republicans and Democrats to work together on health-care legislation, rather than the GOP trying to repeal and replace ObamaCare on its own. In a CNN/SSRS poll, 77 percent of respondents said they would like to see Republicans work with Democrats to pass a health bill with bipartisan support, including 69 percent of Republicans, while only 12 percent of all respondents (and 25 percent of Republicans) wanted the GOP to continue going it alone.

When asked how they would like Congress to handle ObamaCare, 35 percent said they wanted President Trump and the GOP to just abandon trying to change the law and keep it as is, 34 percent said they wanted to see parts of ObamaCare repealed only when a replacement was ready, and 18 percent (and 30 percent of Republicans) said they wanted ObamaCare scrapped, replacement or no.

In an Associated Press/NORC poll also released Thursday, 8 in 10 respondents — including 66 percent of Republicans — said they wanted Republicans to approach Democrats to negotiate, and almost 90 percent wanted Democrats to take the GOP up on that prospective offer, including 81 percent of Democrats. In the AP poll, solid majorities of voters opposed all the major parts of the GOP replacement plan, though they also did not seem enthusiastic about ObamaCare's individual mandate. And a growing majority, 62 percent, said the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health coverage, while 37 percent disagreed.

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The CNN/SSRS poll was conducted July 14-18 among 1,019 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The AP/NORC poll was conducted July 13-17, also among 1,019 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 points.