One of the difficulties that polls have illustrated when it comes to health care reform is reconciling overall public opinion about it with how much those surveyed actually know about the provisions of the law and what it will or won’t do for them. A new Kaiser Health Tracking poll is another example of this.
The poll, conducted Aug. 10-15, asked Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 who are currently uninsured: “In general, do you expect that when it’s fully put into place, the recently passed health reform law will help your own situation when it comes to getting health care, hurt your situation, or won’t make much difference?”
Forty-seven percent said the health care reform law would not make much difference, 31 percent said it would help them, 14 percent said it would hurt and 7 percent were undecided.
But the poll also mentioned three provisions of the law and asked those surveyed whether they thought it was included or not. The finding: a significant number did not know that the law contained the provisions.
Credit: Kaiser Family Foundation
Fifty-two percent knew that the law provided financial help to low and moderate income Americans who don’t get insurance through their jobs to help them purchase coverage, but 41 percent said the law did not do that and 7 percent answered that they didn’t know.
Forty-seven percent knew that the law expanded Medicaid to cover low-income, uninsured adults regardless of whether they have children, but 37 percent said the law did not include that provision, and 16 percent didn’t know if it did or didn’t.
When it came to perhaps the law’s best-known and most controversial provision, 51 percent knew the law required them to have insurance by 2014 or face a fine, 38 percent said the law did not have that requirement, and 11 percent didn’t know.
“Some may see this as a communications failure,” said Drew Altman, head of the Kaiser Family Foundation. ” Certainly it is always possible to get the word out more effectively, but I don’t think that is the issue here. People who are busy in their everyday lives (and who are being bombarded by a highly spun, confusing political debate about the Affordable Care Act), will only understand what a complex law like this does when it is tangible for them – when they either get the benefits themselves, see family members and friends benefiting, or see news reports about how the law is working after it is implemented.”
“These benefits will technically be available in 2014, but outreach and enrollment takes time. It will be 2015 or 2016 before there is a real test of awareness and affordability,” he said.