It's been about three years since President Obama's healthcare law passed Congress and was signed by the president himself. Sadly, three years later, the public is just about as uninformed now on the healthcare law as it was right when it passed.
A Kaiser poll was just released regarding the public's knowledge on the healthcare reform law, and the numbers were quite disturbing.
When poll participants were asked if the healthcare law included the following components, more answered the questions incorrectly than correctly:
- "Cut benefits for people in Medicare" - 43% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 44% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 14% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Establish a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare" - 39% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 40% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 21% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Allow undocumented immigrants to receive subsidies to purchase insurance" - 33% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 47% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 21% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Public option" - 28% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 57% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 15% responding that they aren't sure.
So, on average, just 35.75% of the public answered these four questions correctly, while 47.0% answered them incorrectly, and another 17.75% weren't sure.
Awareness of some key elements of the law has decreased from April of 2010 to March of 2013 as well, such as the following:
- "Tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance" - From 66% (4/10) to 52% (3/13)
- "Subsidy assistance to individuals" - From 75% (4/10) to 62% (3/13)
- "Guaranteed issue" - From 64% (4/10) to 53% (3/13)
- "Medicaid expansion" - From 64% (4/10) to 59% (3/13)
- "Health insurance exchanges" - 62% (4/10) to 58% (3/13)
On these five components of the healthcare law, the public's awareness of them decreased from an average of 66.2% to 56.8% - a whopping 9.4% between April of 2010 and March of 2013.
Lastly, the poll showed quite the disparity between the public's awareness of certain elements of the healthcare law and its approval of these very elements, such as the following:
- "Tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance" - While 88% approve of this, only 52% are aware it's part of the healthcare law
- "Close Medicare 'doughnut hole'" - 81% approve/46% are aware
- "Create health insurance exchanges" - 80% approve/58% are aware
- "Extension of dependent coverage" - 76% approve/62% are aware
- "Subsidy assistance to individuals" - 76% approve/69% are aware
- "Medicaid expansion" - 71% approve/59% are aware
- "Guaranteed issue" - 66% approve/53% are aware
- "Medical loss ratio" - 65% approve/40% are aware
- "Increase Medicare payroll tax" - 60% approve/54% are aware
On average, 73.67% of the public approves of these nine elements of the healthcare law, while only 54.78% of it is aware that they are actually components of the healthcare law.
It's sad to say, but it appears as if right-wing politicians' and media outlets' continuous exaggerations and outright lies regarding the healthcare law has significantly impacted the public's view of it. Hopefully the public becomes better informed of it before its complete implementation on January 1st of 2014, and hopefully the Democratic Party becomes more adamant in countering these falsehoods with the facts, because outside of the individual mandate, which is largely unpopular at this point, every other key component has at least a 57% approval rating. If the public actually gets informed about the law, chances are that with an increase in awareness of the law, an increase in approval of it will be showcased as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/21/1753731/obamacare-misperceptions-poll/
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8425-F.pdf
A Kaiser poll was just released regarding the public's knowledge on the healthcare reform law, and the numbers were quite disturbing.
When poll participants were asked if the healthcare law included the following components, more answered the questions incorrectly than correctly:
- "Cut benefits for people in Medicare" - 43% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 44% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 14% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Establish a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare" - 39% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 40% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 21% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Allow undocumented immigrants to receive subsidies to purchase insurance" - 33% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 47% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 21% responding that they aren't sure.
- "Public option" - 28% correctly answered that the law does not do this and 57% incorrectly answered that it does do this, with 15% responding that they aren't sure.
So, on average, just 35.75% of the public answered these four questions correctly, while 47.0% answered them incorrectly, and another 17.75% weren't sure.
Awareness of some key elements of the law has decreased from April of 2010 to March of 2013 as well, such as the following:
- "Tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance" - From 66% (4/10) to 52% (3/13)
- "Subsidy assistance to individuals" - From 75% (4/10) to 62% (3/13)
- "Guaranteed issue" - From 64% (4/10) to 53% (3/13)
- "Medicaid expansion" - From 64% (4/10) to 59% (3/13)
- "Health insurance exchanges" - 62% (4/10) to 58% (3/13)
On these five components of the healthcare law, the public's awareness of them decreased from an average of 66.2% to 56.8% - a whopping 9.4% between April of 2010 and March of 2013.
Lastly, the poll showed quite the disparity between the public's awareness of certain elements of the healthcare law and its approval of these very elements, such as the following:
- "Tax credits to small businesses to buy insurance" - While 88% approve of this, only 52% are aware it's part of the healthcare law
- "Close Medicare 'doughnut hole'" - 81% approve/46% are aware
- "Create health insurance exchanges" - 80% approve/58% are aware
- "Extension of dependent coverage" - 76% approve/62% are aware
- "Subsidy assistance to individuals" - 76% approve/69% are aware
- "Medicaid expansion" - 71% approve/59% are aware
- "Guaranteed issue" - 66% approve/53% are aware
- "Medical loss ratio" - 65% approve/40% are aware
- "Increase Medicare payroll tax" - 60% approve/54% are aware
On average, 73.67% of the public approves of these nine elements of the healthcare law, while only 54.78% of it is aware that they are actually components of the healthcare law.
It's sad to say, but it appears as if right-wing politicians' and media outlets' continuous exaggerations and outright lies regarding the healthcare law has significantly impacted the public's view of it. Hopefully the public becomes better informed of it before its complete implementation on January 1st of 2014, and hopefully the Democratic Party becomes more adamant in countering these falsehoods with the facts, because outside of the individual mandate, which is largely unpopular at this point, every other key component has at least a 57% approval rating. If the public actually gets informed about the law, chances are that with an increase in awareness of the law, an increase in approval of it will be showcased as well.
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/21/1753731/obamacare-misperceptions-poll/
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8425-F.pdf
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