Poll: Majority says Sebelius exit won’t change O-Care rollout

A majority of adults don’t believe that the departure of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will make a difference in ObamaCare’s rollout, according to a new poll by the Huffington Post and YouGov.

Sixty-one percent said a change of leadership at HHS will not make the healthcare law work better or worse, while 8 percent said it would make things worse. Another 7 percent said Sebelius’s departure will improve the rollout, and 24 percent were not sure.

{mosads}Sebelius announced last week that she would step down from her position at HHS once a replacement is confirmed by the Senate. President Obama subsequently nominated White House budget director Sylvia Burwell to take the reins at the department.

The resignation was long expected from Sebelius, whose reputation was tainted by problems with ObamaCare’s rollout last fall but is nonetheless leaving after more than 7.5 million enrollments in the new insurance exchanges.

Few people blame Sebelius as the main reason behind the troubled launch of HealthCare.gov and other problems with implementation. Only 5 percent of adults said the former Kansas governor was primarily responsible, while 40 percent blamed Obama.

Not surprisingly, opinions of Sebelius’s performance tend to break along party lines. Seventy-six percent of Republicans expressed a negative opinion of Sebelius compared with 13 percent of Democrats.