American's Don't Feel Impacted from the ACA

Interesting poll results came out last week concerning American’s attitudes towards the Affordable Care Act. According to the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll 

"More than four years after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and several months into the first year of its coverage expansions, most Americans do not feel personally impacted by the law. Among the minority who say they have felt an impact, more feel they have been harmed than helped by the law, with Republicans more likely to say they have been hurt and Democrats more likely to say they have been helped."

However most would like politicians to stop talking about it. 51% of registered voters say they are tired of hearing candidates for Congress talk about health care law and want them to focus more on other issues like jobs. These results were also found similarly within Gallop poll findings. 

The Gallop poll results reiterated the same results regarding the health policy with more detail,

"About one month after the new healthcare exchanges closed with over 8 million new enrollees, there has been little substantial change in Americans' perception that the healthcare law has helped them. Most Americans say the law has had no impact on their healthcare situation, while those who do perceive an effect are more likely to say it has hurt them rather than helped them. The majority of Americans have reported that the Affordable Care Act has had little effect on their personal situations since Gallup first asked this question in early 2012. In more recent months, after the exchange-based enrollment opened up, Americans have gradually become more likely to indicate that the law has had an effect -- both positive and negative. The current 24% who say the law has hurt them is by one percentage point the highest measured, while the 14% who say the law has helped them is also within one point of being the highest measured on that dimension. In all instances, across seven different surveys, Americans have been at least marginally more likely to say the law has hurt them and their families than to say it has helped them.Americans' views on how the healthcare law has affected them personally are predictably partisan, as are almost all attitudes about Obamacare."

Share Your Thoughts:
Do you feel impacted by the Health Policy of the Affordable Care Act? If you were impacted by the change in health policy was it positive or negative? Do you feel this political debate about health policy is overdone or still of concern?



Thank you to Baylor MBA in Healthcare Program for helping it's students understand the impact of health policy in America.

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/30/aca-poll_n_5420425.html
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