Study: Broad Support For Provisions In Affordable Care Act
SOURCE:
President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act into law on March 22, 2010.
Many elements of the Affordable Care Act are garnering a majority support among Americans, despite some continuing split in opinion on the health care reform law, according to a new poll from Harris Interactive/HealthDay.
The provision to allow children to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they turn 26, for instance, continues to have a solid majority of 57 percent of respondents supporting it. Preventing insurers from denying coverage to people because they are or have been sick has grown to enjoy a 71 percent approval rating, up from 64 percent in November 2010.
A majority also said they support limiting insurance companies' profit margins. On many of the other significant components of the legislation, the poll showed a split on approval, with a majority only saying they wanted to repeal the individual mandate portion.
The poll shows deep divisions along party lines with two-thirds of Republicans wanting the law repealed, while only 9 percent of Democrats favor wiping it out.
On the whole, 36 percent of respondents said they want the law repealed while 21 percent want to keep it as is. Yet, 48 percent say they’re unsure or would only want parts of it changed.
"People do not understand the health reform bill," said John Goodman, president of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis.
The ACA was designed to kick in, bit by bit, over several years. In 2012, the health care industry will begin standardizing records electronically to reduce administration costs. Next year, new “bundling” payments will start and primary care doctors will receive more in Medicaid compensation. Exclusions based on gender or pre-existing conditions will end in 2014, which has been particularly popular.
A Kaiser Health Tracking poll late last year also found people to be widely supportive of making health care plans provide easy-to-understand benefit summaries, tax credits for businesses to provide coverage, and subsidies to assist people in purchasing coverage.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the constitutionality of the most unpopular element—the individual mandate to purchase health care coverage—in March 2012.
Tyler Kingkade is a staff writer with Campus Progress. Keep up with him on Twitter @tylerkingkade.
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