A new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation comes back with the somewhat shocking result that nearly half of Americans don’t know that the Affordable Care Act is law:
A new poll finds that many Americans are confused about the health care overhaul legislation commonly called “Obamacare.”
The Kaiser Family Foundation released results of a non-partisan study today finding more than 40 percent did not even know the law was in place.
“Four in ten Americans (42%) are unaware that the ACA [Affordable Care Act] is still the law of the land,” the report says, “including 12 percent who believe the law has been repealed by Congress, 7 percent who believe it has been overturned by the Supreme Court and 23 percent who say they don’t know enough to say what the status of the law is.”
The survey showed public opinion on Obamacare is at its second-lowest rating in the past two years.
Less than half – 40 percent – of adults viewed the ACA favorably, whereas 35 percent said they viewed it unfavorably. Another 24 percent said they did not know or refused to answer.
The first question that came to mind for me was exactly how the question was phrased, so I went to the poll itself and found this:
- The question reads “As youmay know, a health care bill was signed into law in March 2010. As far as you know, which comes closes to describing the current status of the health care law?
- 59% stated correctly that the law was in effect and in the process of being implemented;
- 42% fell into the category of those who were unaware the law was in effect;
- Of that 42%, 7% responded that they believed that the law had been repealed by the Supreme Court, 12% responded that they believed that they law had been repealed by Congress, and 23% either said they didn’t know or refused to respond;
- Among respondents 18-29, 51% were unaware that the PPACA was the law, and among those reporting an annual income under $30,000 a full 59% were unaware that it was law.
It’s hard to ascribe a reason for this other than the fact that the Administration has done a horrible job of rolling out implementation of the law itself, which should make for some interesting times once the exchanges open up for enrollment starting on October 1st.
