New Jersey Divided on Obamacare

On Apr 7, 2014

With the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act public exchanges having come to a close, New Jersey residents are divided on their views of the law, but few actually want to see it repealed. The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll also finds that statewide opinion of Obamacare is slightly more positive than it was during the initial rollout’s website glitches and that New Jerseyans appear to be better educated about the law than they were before the exchange went online.

Just under half of New Jersey residents have either a very favorable (19%) or somewhat favorable (26%) opinion of the 2010 health reform law commonly known as Obamacare. A slightly higher number hold either a very unfavorable (32%) or somewhat unfavorable (17%) view. The 45% positive opinion is 5 points higher than the 40% result in December, while the 49% negative view is one point lower than December’s 50%. In September, before the health exchanges went online, Garden State opinion was 45% positive to 40% negative.

Compared to national polls, both positive and negative opinion in New Jersey is higher. A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll conducted last month found that 38% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Obamacare – 7 points lower than New Jersey – and 46% have an unfavorable one – 3 points lower than New Jersey. On the other hand, Americans (15%) are more likely than Garden State residents (5%) to be unsure of their view of Obamacare.

“Initial glitches with the website led to an increase in negative opinion which has held since the initial rollout. However, some undecided New Jerseyans have become a little more positive over the past couple of months,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

While just 7% of New Jerseyans say the health reform law is fine just as it is, fewer than 3-in-10 want to repeal it entirely (16%) or replace it with a Republican alternative (12%). Fully 6-in-10 (60%) prefer an approach that would keep the law and work to improve it. The 67% of New Jersey residents who want to keep the health reform law, either as is or with improvements, is 8 percentage points higher than the 59% of American adults who said the same in last month’s Kaiser poll. In New Jersey, only Republicans (62%) want to see the law repealed. Far fewer independents (33%) and Democrats (6%) feel the same.

The poll finds that New Jerseyans seem have become more aware of certain aspects of the ACA despite not having a state-run exchange or public information campaign,. Specifically, 73% correctly say that the law requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance or else pay a fine. Awareness of the law’s individual mandate is up significantly from the 56% who knew about it back in September. Also, New Jersey awareness levels are now closer to national awareness levels, which stood at 78% in the March 2014 Kaiser poll and have hovered between 74% and 81% over the past year. Overall, 72% of Garden State residents say they understand the health reform law either very (25%) or somewhat (47%) well. This is up from 67% in September.

A majority (52%) of New Jerseyans say they are tired of hearing about the debate over the health care law and think the country should focus more on other issues. This view is shared by 54% of independents, 52% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans. Less than half (45%) of state residents feel that it is important for the country to continue the debate over the health care law. The New Jersey results are similar to Kaiser’s national poll results which found that 53% want the country to focus on other issues and 42% want the debate to continue.

The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll was conducted by telephone with 803 New Jersey adults from March 30 to April 1, 2014. This sample has a margin of error of + 3.5 percent. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute and originally published by the Asbury Park Press and its sister publications (Courier-Post, Courier News, Daily Journal, Daily Record, and Home News Tribune).