Health Reform

The latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, fielded right after the U.S. House cancelled its vote on a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), finds a majority of Americans saying it is a “good thing” that Congress did not pass the American Health Care Act (AHCA). And despite divided views about the ACA, three-fourths of the public say President Trump and his administration should do what they can to make the existing health care law work. The survey also explores who the public blames for the failure of the Republican bill and next steps for President Trump and Republicans in Congress.

Three years after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the March 2013 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that a majority of Americans are unsure how the law will impact them, and few are paying attention to the details of state-level decisions about implementation.

This data note reviews the Foundation’s recent public opinion polls for the public’s views about repeal of the law. Data Note (.pdf)

For the two years since the law’s passage, and during the debate leading up to it, the individual mandate has been one of the most controversial aspects of the law. As the lawyers, policy makers, ACA opponents and supporters focus intently on the Supreme Court hearings, this Data Note looks…

This Data Note draws from the March 2012 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll and examines people’s impressions of how the law and the Court case will affect them, focusing primarily on those groups that are in the position to receive the greatest benefits. For the most part, those that stand to…

As the second round of open enrollment approaches, policy makers, journalists, insurers and enrollment groups may want to keep in mind what health insurance shoppers told us about their experiences during the first open enrollment period. This data note examines selected findings from two Kaiser Family Foundation surveys that shed light on how people navigated the new options and choices available under the ACA during last fall’s open enrollment, with the hope of helping to inform our understanding of individuals needs during this second open enrollment period.

In the final Kaiser Health Tracking Poll before the 2014 midterm elections in November, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues to be just one of several issues on voters’ minds. Less than 1 in 10 registered voters identify the ACA as the most important issue to their vote, ranking behind the economy, dissatisfaction with government, education and the situation in Iraq and Syria. With the ACA’s second open enrollment period approaching, the poll also finds the uninsured are not yet tuned in. About 9 in 10 of the uninsured are unaware of when the next open enrollment period begins, two thirds say they know “only a little” or “nothing at all” about the marketplaces, and just over half are unaware of financial assistance available.

The survey is the second in a series exploring the experiences and perceptions of people who purchase their own health insurance, the group perhaps most affected by the Affordable Care Act’s reforms to the individual insurance market and tax subsidies to make such coverage more affordable. It includes people in ACA-compliant plans sold both inside and outside the federal and state marketplaces, as well as those still in non-compliant plans, which took effect prior to January 2014 and in many cases do not comply with all the law’s requirements.

Other than the big stories of Ferguson, Ebola and ISIS, the only other news which captured a majority of the public’s attention this month was President Obama’s executive order on immigration. Smaller, yet substantial, shares report closely following many health policy news stories this month. Over four in ten say they closely followed the lawsuit filed by House Republicans against President Obama over the implementation of the health care law and about a third say they followed a change in the official estimate for the number of people that enrolled in health insurance during the ACA’s first open enrollment period and the ACA’s second open enrollment period. The least closely followed health policy story of those asked about this month, was coverage of comments about the ACA made by MIT health economist, Jonathan Gruber

With many of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) major provisions taking effect this past year, the December Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that many Americans are aware of the main parts of the law and, with the exception of the individual mandate, at least 6 in 10 feel favorably towards them. The poll finds the vast majority of the uninsured don’t know the deadline to enroll, most expect to get health insurance in the next few months, and nearly two-thirds say they don’t think they’ll have to pay a fine, or don’t know if they will, for not having coverage this year.