News and Views

The Kaiser Foundation recently completed a poll of Americans on the Affordable Care Act. The findings are interesting.

43% of those polled had an unfavorable impression of the law (vs. 39% favorable), but just 35% think opponents of the law should continue their efforts to repeal the law or keep it from being implemented.

But it gets really interesting when they polled people about their knowledge of the new law.

–Only 59% knew that coverage could not be denied based on medical history.
–42% thought that the government would set up panels to make end of life decisions for those on Medicare (the infamous “Death Panels”).
–43% thought that illegal immigrants would be given financial assistance to buy insurance coverage
–52% (over half!) thought that there would be a new government run insurance plan
–Only 65% knew about the new health insurance exchanges.
–42% thought that Medicare benefits would be cut.
–Only 42% knew that the act helps close the Medicare prescription “doughnut hole”.

When you consider the widespread ignorance about what the act does, the polls about favorable/unfavorable opinions become pretty meaningless.