--- title: Americans Favor Obama Health Care Law, CNN/ORC Poll Finds description: More Americans hold positive views about Obamacare than hold negative views for the first time since theAffordable Care Act passed in 2010. canonical: https://time.com/4639119/obamacare-popularity-rises-poll/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T13:30:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T07:14:01.604Z article:section: Health og:title: Obamacare Is More Popular Than Ever, Poll Finds og:description: A new CNN/ORC poll found more people favored than opposed the health care law og:url: https://time.com/4639119/obamacare-popularity-rises-poll/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0e881e2f1ccd1b0/6988b628428a9e0b04cd5880/obamacare-affordable-care-act.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Hundreds of activists and allies from the newly-formed anti- og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obamacare Is More Popular Than Ever, Poll Finds twitter:description: A new CNN/ORC poll found more people favored than opposed the health care law twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc0e881e2f1ccd1b0/6988b628428a9e0b04cd5880/obamacare-affordable-care-act.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 02:35 video:published: 2017-01-12 section: politics topics: Affordable Care Act, health insurance, Obama presidency, social safety net, Medicare and Medicaid, filibuster-proof majority, Republican opposition, pre-existing conditions genre: news analysis, retrospective tones: analytical, retrospective, critical, measured emotions: pride (low), frustration (low), determination (medium) sentiment: neutral audience: US voters, health policy readers, political news followers, students of American politics people: Barack Obama, Donald Trump organizations: TIME, Republican Party, Democratic Party products: Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid content_suitability: politics [00:00-02:35]; health controversy [01:24-02:24] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # Obamacare Is More Popular Than Ever, Poll Finds > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=1b0866fd-f7b2-4a92-bd3f-e1896bffa0e9&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act [Watch (HLS stream): 10 Days That Define the Obama Presidency: The Affordable Care Act](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/S8hGNLNB.m3u8) (2:35)  _Published 2017-01-12. As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary The video looks back at the passage of the Affordable Care Act, presented as one of the defining moments of Barack Obama's presidency. It explains the goal of extending health insurance coverage to working Americans who could not afford it, a priority of Democratic leaders for decades. It describes how Obama's 2008 win gave his party a filibuster-proof Senate majority and large House majorities, and how public opinion split along political lines. It closes with Republican opposition to the law and comments on its provision for pre-existing conditions. ## Key points - The health insurance bill became law after almost a century of attempts and over a year of debate. (00:05) - Obama's 2008 campaign promise was to complete the American social safety net for working people who could not afford health insurance. (00:19) - The US historically lacked a guaranteed healthcare provision that most other Western nations give their citizens. (00:36) - Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s guaranteed healthcare for the poor and elderly, and Democrats sought to extend coverage to working people. (00:48) - Obama's 2008 win was so large that for a time Democrats held a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and large majorities in the House. (01:13) - Most Americans did not understand all parts of the complicated bill, but their feelings followed their political leanings. (01:24) - The speaker argues the Republican opposition story is less about the law itself than about Republicans deciding to oppose Obama from the start. (01:53) - The law would end the practice of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, described as a dramatic rethinking of how insurance works in the country. (02:24) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:19] Passage of the health insurance law. The narration announces that the health insurance bill has become law after decades of effort and extended debate. - [00:19 to 00:48] Obama's promise and the safety net. The video explains Obama's 2008 pledge to complete the social safety net for working Americans without insurance. - [00:48 to 01:13] Democratic goals since the 1960s. Medicare and Medicaid are placed in context as earlier steps, with the extension to working people a long-standing Democratic aim. - [01:13 to 01:41] Political majorities and public reaction. The 2008 election gave Democrats large majorities, and public views on the law tracked political affiliation. - [01:41 to 02:35] Republican opposition and pre-existing conditions. The speaker describes Republican opposition as a permanent campaign against Obama, and notes the law's pre-existing conditions provision. ## Key quotes - [00:05] unknown: "after over a year of debate, today after all the votes have been tallied health insurance perform become law in the United States of America." - [01:53] unknown: "The story of republican opposition to Obamacare, isn't about Obamacare. It's about the way Republicans decided to oppose President Barack Obama from the very beginning." - [02:24] unknown: "And they'd be getting rid of pre- existing conditions. That was a tremendous change and really just, a dramatic rethinking of a way insurance has been carried out in this country." ## Questions this video answers - What was the central promise of Obama's 2008 campaign regarding healthcare? [00:19] - Why did Obama have the political strength to pass the health insurance bill? [01:13] - How did public opinion on the health law divide? [01:24] - Why did Republicans oppose the law according to the speaker? [01:53] - What major change did the law make to insurance regarding pre-existing conditions? [02:24] ## Content suitability - politics [00:00-02:35]: Discusses a contested partisan health law and political opposition to the president. - health controversy [01:24-02:24]: Describes public and partisan disagreement over the health insurance law.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 19, 2017 1:30 PM UTC As President Obama's two terms in office come to a close, TIME is taking a look back at the most pivotal moments of his presidency.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Jan 19, 2017 1:30 PM UTC More Americans hold positive [views about Obamacare](http://time.com/4616406/obamacare-enrollement-record-donald-trump/) than hold negative views for the first time since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, according to [a new poll from CNN/ORC](http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2017/images/01/18/congress,.aca.pdf). The results found that 49% of people polled favored the law—slightly more than the 47% who opposed it. The responses show people may not have known what they got until it was (almost) gone, because every previous poll has seen more people oppose the law, [CNN reports](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/obamacare-approval-cnn-orc-poll/index.html). It was the first time in at least 18 polls since March 2010 that people favored the healthcare law, according to CNN. Obamacare’s newfound popularity is coupled with how 82% of respondents believe it is at least somewhat likely that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will [repeal and replace](http://time.com/money/4632898/obamacare-affordable-care-act-repeal-what-happens-preexisting-conditions/) the healthcare law, the poll found. Although the portion of uninsured Americans has reached an all-time low under Obamacare, more people polled felt it has been a failure (37%) than a success (23%). The largest portion of respondents, 38%, said it was still too soon to tell. CNN/ORC International conducted the poll of 1,000 people over the phone between Jan. 12 and Jan. 17, and it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. \[[_CNN_](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/19/politics/obamacare-approval-cnn-orc-poll/index.html)\] ## Transcript [00:00] Today after almost a century of try, today [00:05] after over a year of debate, today after [00:12] all the votes have been tallied health insurance [00:14] perform become law in the United States of America. [00:19] Where the central Promises of Obama's 2008 [00:22] campaign was to, in a way, complete the American [00:26] social safety net, specifically for American's who [00:31] were working, were not necessarily poor, but who [00:35] could not afford health insurance and therefore didn't [00:36] have regular medical care. This is something that most [00:39] other Western nations Provide their citizens with, what [00:42] the US hasn't historically. And he did this with a [00:44] massive bill that did that and many other things. Since [00:48] in the 1960s when medicare and medicate past which [00:52] basically guaranteed healthcare for the poor and for [00:55] the elderly, it has been a priority of democratic leaders [00:59] going back decades To try and extend that to working [01:03] people. And so when Obama came on the scene, he [01:06] was really promising to complete this generation long [01:10] democratic project. He was able to do it because the [01:13] win in 2008 had been so grand. It had been such a [01:17] big win. So for a time, we have a filibuster proof [01:21] majority In the Senate. He had large majorities in the [01:24] house. Most americans didn't really understand all the [01:27] parts of Obamacare. It was a very complicated bill. But [01:30] they had strong feelings. And those feelings tended to [01:33] follow their political leanings. They were conservative [01:35] Republican. They were concerned. It looked like [01:37] government expansion overreach. They were liberal [01:41] and fans of the president They embraced it. [01:43] [ UNKNOWN ] For years, the American people have [01:47] been calling on Washington, to build a bridge away [01:49] from Obamacare. The story of republican opposition to [01:53] Obamacare, isn't about Obamacare. It's about the way [01:55] Republicans decided to oppose President Barack [01:58] Obama from the very beginning. They lost the ability in [02:01] some way to shape the legislation to make it more [02:02] palatable. But they decided that political opposition [02:05] made permanent campaign was more beneficial that [02:08] [ UNKNOWN ]. And the biggest strangers, the most [02:11] visible ones are the ones that are almost certain to stay [02:14] but even president- elect Donald Trump wants to [02:16] keep around are we a very popular visitations around [02:19] children and the young girls staying at their parents [02:22] house [ UNKNOWN ]. And they'd be getting rid of [02:24] pre- existing conditions. That was a tremendous [02:26] change and really just, a dramatic rethinking of a way [02:29] insurance has been carried out in this country. 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