By Patrick Baron
BLOOMINGTON – A survey conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows Illinoisans are split when it comes to the Affordable Care Act.
The survey suggested that while 50 percent of people want Obamacare to stay, 50 percent want it to be repealed immediately or replaced with a different law. Paul Simon Institute spokesperson Linda Baker explained the state has a chunk of the population that depends on the health care provided by the ACA.
“We have some 700,000 indivuduals that are now on the Medicaid roles that have not been in the past through the expansion,” said Baker. “And if in fact the Affordable Care Act was repealed, those indidivuals would have to find other health insurance.”
Baker said while there was a divide in whether or not people like the ACA, there are a number of residents who would prefer to approve a replacement before repealing the ACA.
“That 50 percent was a very large number that said keep it, but the other half thought that either we could repeal it immediately and the others thought ‘we should repeal it, but we need to take a step back first and see what the replacement looks like before we move forward’,” Baker explained.
Baker explained Illinois was one of the first states to take part in expansion through Medicaid after the ACA was passed.
Patrick Baron can be reached at patrick.baron@cumulus.com.
