Bush’s Medicare Part D Was Much Less Popular Than Obamacare On Rollout

Jon Perr shows us the math, courtesy of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

As it turns out, the numbers show that President Bush’s Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, a program that now enjoys 90 percent approval from America’s seniors, was far more unpopular during its launch than Obama’s Affordable Care Act is now.

The charts from the Kaiser Family Foundation above tell the tale. Since its passage in March 2010, support for and opposition to the Affordable Care Act has been largely unchanged. But KFF’s polling of seniors’ views of the Bush Medicare drug plan showed it consistently more unpopular than the ACA, with disapproval spiking during its launch in the fall of 2005. And that dismal performance was for a program for which enrollment was voluntary and the coverage fully paid by Uncle Sam…

One key reason is that, despite their opposition to a program that was needlessly expensive and a giveaway to private insurers and pharmaceutical companies, Democrats on Capitol Hill and in the states helped make the program a success. Part D also had one other thing going for it. It was better than the alternative: nothing.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.