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POLLING on the ACA

Tracking the Public’s Views on the ACA

While overall opinion of the Affordable Care Act has been more favorable than unfavorable since 2017, there remain deep partisan divides. See how public opinion on the ACA has changed from the inception of the law to the present. This interactive tool highlights key moments when views shifted and trends based on party identification, income, age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

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  • Resources Examine Recession-Driven Record Medicaid Enrollment and Assess Medicaid Spending Growth

    Fact Sheet

    Three papers from the Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examine Medicaid enrollment and spending during the recent recession. The analyses show Medicaid enrollment rose above 50 million people nationally for the first time in 2010, reflecting the program’s counter-cyclical role of helping people who become uninsured when the economy falters, with many turning to Medicaid after losing jobs and employer-based health insurance. Without access to Medicaid coverage, millions more people who suffered economic…

  • Research Brief: Insurance Coverage and Access to Care in Primary Care Shortage Areas

    Issue Brief

    As both federal and state governments gear up to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), concerns about the supply and distribution of physicians, particularly primary care physicians, are being raised. In many areas of the country, there is a shortage of primary care physicians, and some worry about whether the current workforce can meet the growing demand for services that will likely accompany coverage expansions. To inform provider workforce issues related to…

  • Uniform Coverage Summaries for Consumers

    Issue Brief

    This brief explains the proposed federal rule that requires private health plans to provide a short, easy-to-read uniform summary of benefits and coverage to all health insurance applicants and enrollees. The rule, which implements a provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is intended to make it simpler for consumers to compare health plans before they enroll and understand their coverage once they are enrolled. Currently, consumers in employer-sponsored plans receive summaries of their benefits,…

  • Pulling it Together: The Most Popular Provision in the ACA?

    Perspective

    In our most recent monthly tracking poll, we asked the American people what elements of the health reform law they like and dislike. Surprisingly, the runaway favorite was a relatively obscure requirement that health plans provide consumers with a short, easy to understand description of their benefits and coverage. Sixty percent of the American people gave this requirement for greater transparency in health insurance benefits a very favorable rating, the only provision in the law…

  • Explaining the State Integrated Care and Financial Alignment Demonstrations for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries

    Issue Brief

    This paper provides an overview of the joint efforts of states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop more integrated ways of paying for and delivering health care to the 9 million people who are eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Dual eligible beneficiaries comprise many of the poorest and sickest people covered by either program, and they account for a disproportionately large share of Medicare and Medicaid spending.…

  • Questions About Essential Health Benefits

    Perspective

    The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently issued its long-awaited report on defining the essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As expected, the committee preparing the IOM report did not recommend which specific services should be covered, but rather discussed what the process should be for defining the essential benefits, which all insurers selling coverage to individuals and small businesses will have to provide beginning in 2014. Somewhat unexpected was their recommendation to set a…

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Support for Health Reform Law Dips in October

    Perspective

    After remaining roughly evenly split for most of the last year and a half, this month’s tracking poll found a higher share of the public expressing negative views towards the health reform law. About half (51 percent) say they have an unfavorable view of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), while 34 percent have a favorable view, a low point in Kaiser polls since the law was passed. While Democrats continue to be substantially…

  • Health Reform and the Art of Federalism

    Perspective

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced significant changes to the premiums charged in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), aka the "high risk pool" created by the Affordable Care Act. Premiums will now be up to 40% lower depending on the state (in some states the cost to enrollees is unchanged), and application procedures will be eased. The PCIP plans provide coverage for people who cannot buy coverage in the…

  • An Employer Health Benefits Balance Sheet

    Perspective

    There seems to be growing interest in the question of how many employers will keep offering coverage to their full-time employees once the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented in 2014, or instead will choose to stop offering coverage and pay a penalty. While there is some good analysis and plenty of conjecture, it is impossible to predict with any certainty how employers will react at this moment because some of the key rules…

  • Peering Into the Black Box of Insurance Rating

    Perspective

    Recently, the New York Times reported that private health insurers continue to seek large premium increases despite seeing lower than expected use of medical care and booking record profits. The story highlights a significant problem for health policy: the lack of good, public information about how health insurers manage health care use and what they pay for medical services. As a nation, we rely on competition among largely private health plans to ensure that health…