Tipsheet

Majority Want ObamaCare Individual Mandate Delayed

Last week around 5 pm before the long Independence Day weekend, the Obama administration announced it would be delaying the ObamaCare employer mandate until 2015. This delay gave big business and corporations a break while individuals remain obligated to the individual mandate, which has not been delayed.

A new Rasmussen Report shows a majority of Americans want the individual mandate postponed, something House Republicans have said they will vote on in the coming weeks.

Now that President Obama has delayed implementation of the employer mandate portion of his new national health care law, most voters think he also should delay the requirement that every American buy or obtain health insurance.

Only 35% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the individual mandate anyway, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifty-six percent (56%) oppose the law’s requirement that every American obtain health insurance or else be forced to pay fines. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

By a two-to-one margin, 56% to 26%, voters want the president to delay implementation of the individual mandate.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of Democrats favor the individual mandate. Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 57% of voters not affiliated with either major party are opposed. Seventy-one percent (71%) of GOP voters and 58% of unaffiliateds want to delay this mandate. Democrats are more evenly divided--43% favor a delay and 35% are opposed.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is about to spend a bunch of taxpayer money on ObamaCare advertising for beach banners, porta-potties and coffee cups in order to sell the unpopular bill to young people.

In Connecticut, selling Obamacare involves airplanes flying banners across beaches. Oregon may reel in hipsters with branded coffee cups for their lattes. And in neighboring Washington, the effort could get quite intimate: The state is interested in sponsoring portable toilets at concerts.

The advertisements, developed with political consultants and communications firms, illustrate the ability of the health-care law’s supporters to pinpoint the precise group they want to sign up for Obamacare — young and healthy Americans who won’t weigh down the system with high medical bills.

Train wreck, full speed ahead.