UNITED STATES - MARCH 22: U.S. Capitol Police prepare flex cuffs to arrest members of ADAPT protesting in the Capitol rotunda against the American Health Care Act of 2017 and cuts to medicaid on Wednesday, March 22, 2017. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Toss this on to the pile of problems Senate Republicans are facing in repealing Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion that went with it: Medicaid expansion is ridiculously popular. Seriously, hugely popular, even among Republicans. More popular than just about any politician could hope to be.

The House bill would significantly reduce federal funding to states that expanded their Medicaid programs to low-income adults under the ACA. A vast majority (84%) of the public say it is important that states that received federal funds to expand Medicaid continue to receive those funds under any replacement plan.

This includes large majorities of Democrats (93%), independents (83%) and Republicans (71%).  Support for continued funding for the Medicaid expansion is also popular among people living in states that have not expanded their Medicaid program. […]

When asked about this proposed change, seven in 10 (71%) say Medicaid should largely continue as it is today, while fewer (26%) say it should be changed to limit federal funding while letting states decide who and what to cover. Democrats and independents largely favor the status quo (90% and 70%, respectively) while Republicans split, with similar shares supporting the status quo (47%) and the alternative (48%).

Overall six in 10 Americans (58%) say Medicaid is either “very” or “somewhat” important for them and their family, including a majority of Democrats (64%) and independents (57%), and nearly half (46%) of Republicans.

Very few people who aren’t Republican—and not too many of them!—like the idea of their fellow Americans losing their insurance. Seems that it’s just elected Republicans and their Koch overlords. That’s even with a little over half (52 percent) of Republicans who think Medicaid is “welfare,” as opposed to the 60 percent of Americans who just call it “health insurance.”

That’s a reflection of the nearly 60 percent of Americans who say Medicaid is important to them—because it is the insurance that covers their children, or their elderly parents, grandparents, or spouses. It’s the primary payer for long-term care, covering at least half of all patients in long-term care. Which, by the way, would be far too expensive for just about everybody but the Koch brothers to pay for out of pocket. That’s why it’s so popular and so important to Americans—it makes some of the hardest parts of life—like having to put a parent in a nursing home—a little easier because it at least takes away the specter of having to bankrupt trying to afford it.

So good luck, Mitch McConnell, taking all that away.

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Public support for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare remains insanely high