Views Unchanged On the Affordable Care Act – Tilting More Negative Than Positive – But A Majority of the Public Opposes Defunding The Law

Kaiser Health News –

August 28, 2013:

Public opinion on the health reform law remains largely unchanged this month, tilting somewhat more negative than positive with 42 percent of Americans holding an unfavorable view and 37 percent a favorable one, a division which has held relatively steady in the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll since February, driven mainly by partisan differences on the law. The August poll finds that a majority of Americans (57%) disapprove of the idea of cutting off government funding as a way to stop the law from being implemented.

The most commonly cited reason among those who oppose defunding is that “using the budget process to stop a law is not the way our government should work” (69%), followed by a belief that “without funding the law will be crippled and won’t work as planned” (56%), and a feeling that the law will be “a good thing for the country” (49%). Fewer (35%) say their main reason for opposing defunding efforts is that “we’ve heard enough about health reform and it’s time to move on to something else.” Kaiser has asked about “defunding” nine times since 2011 with disapproval of the idea consistently outweighing approval.

The new poll also finds that the public’s most trusted sources of information about the ACA are not necessarily the ones they are most likely to be hearing from. Americans are most likely to say they would put “a lot” of trust in information from their doctor or nurse (44%), a local pharmacist (30%), and federal and state health agencies (34% and 33%, respectively). By contrast, the most common places where people say they’ve actually heard about the law are from the news media (81% have gotten information from this source, but only 8% say they would trust it “a lot”) and family and friends (49% have gotten information, but only 18% trust it “a lot.”). The next most common source is social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Twenty-three percent have heard something about the ACA from such a source in the last month, yet just 3 percent say they would trust information from social networking sources “a lot.”

Other key findings of the August poll:

• Half the public (51%) say they don’t know enough about the ACA to understand how it will impact them and their family, with the share even higher among the uninsured (62%). This share has held fairly steady since 2010.

• With open enrollment set to begin Oct. 1st, 33 percent of the public say they’ve heard “a lot” or “some” about the new ACA marketplace in their state, up from 22 percent in June. Among the uninsured and those with lower incomes, roughly three in ten say they’ve heard “some” or “a lot” about the marketplaces.

• More than a third of the public (36%), including 33 percent of the uninsured, say they have tried to get more information about the law, with a majority of this group turning to a general internet search (55%) or the news media (23%). Far fewer say they sought information from a health insurance company (8%), a government website (7%), a health care provider (6%) or another government source (6%).

• Among Americans overall, one in ten (10%), including 12 percent of the uninsured, say they have been personally contacted by someone about the ACA through a phone call, email, text message or door-to-door visit. About a quarter (27%) of those who report being personally contacted say the person wanted to provide general information about the law, while about one in ten each say the person made arguments either against the law (11%) or in favor of it (9%).

Source: John & Rusty Report via Choice Admin