Public Opinion Of Health Care Reform Improving

by Louise on July 12, 2010

Americans are still pretty divided on the issue of health care reform, but the number of people who have generally favorable views of the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has increased seven percentage points in the last month, to 48%.

My guess is that people are starting to feel the real world effects of the bill and seeing the legislation in a more favorable light when it benefits them directly.  Seniors who find themselves in the “donut hole” in their Medicare Part D prescription coverage started getting $250 checks last month.  Colorado was one of the first states to get the new federally funded high risk pool up and running, but similar plans are coming online in all 50 states, and will make it easier for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions to get health insurance.  The early retiree reinsurance program application became available to employers last month, and will make it easier for businesses to provide health insurance to their retiring workers who are not yet eligible for Medicare.  Young adults are being allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance policy until they are 26.  All of these programs are part of the health care reform legislation, and they all have a direct, favorable impact on individuals and businesses.

It will be interesting to watch public opinion of health care reform over the next few years.  I imagine a lot of it will depend on what happens to premiums.  If health insurance carriers can comply with the requirements of the new law without substantial premiums increases, we’ll probably see even more favorable public opinion of the law, especially once government subsidies kick in to help people pay for health insurance.

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  • http://www.hiexchange.org Jim Sugden

    Sorry to be negative, however I misplaced my rose colored glasses.

    PPACA does almost nothing to deal with the real problem, the rising cost of health care. Mandating addiitonal benefits and telling people that costs will abate is political deception in its worst form. Premiums are already rising in the individual and small group markets. They will continue to rise as service, in the form of brokers, dissappears. Any temporary improvement in public opinion about the new law and the current administration will disappear once premium rates realy begin to rise in earnest and consumers are left to deal solely with inexperienced 1-800 service reps who are employed by the carriers.

    The administration’s only hope is to continue to demonize the insurance industry for charging premiums that reflect the cost of claims. Then the only move left is “centralization” of the system.

  • Donna

    “Service” from the brokers like the guy at MEGA Life who lied about the coverage I was buying a few years back? And “service” from the people selling discount plans and lying to people about the level of coverage. I’m comfortable that we’re moving in a direction where these shady products from shady companies won’t be a part of the ‘free market’ where unsuspecting consumers can still end up in a very bad situation after they did their best to make sure they were covered.

  • http://www.hiexchange.org Jim Sugden

    Donna, I think you just made my point.

    If you rely solely on a carrier’s service rep to advise you, you’ve put yourself in the hands of those who profit most from your misinformed choice. When you engage the services of a licensed insurance broker who represents all carriers, you have a much better chance of getting a product that is the right fit for you. All the better if your broker is a memeber of the National Assn. of Health Underwriters and undergoes rigorous contiuing education and ethics training to maintain licensure. It’s a safe bet that the Mega Life rep who sold you trash wasn’t an NAHU member and perhaps wasn;t even licensed.

    Overall, health products include about 5% for marketing and sales expenses. (check the PricewaterHouseCoopers 2009 “Premium Dollar” review). Given the new Minimum Loss Ratio rules, insurers are faced with squeezing out brokers to make the numbers work. If the system squeezes pricing so hard that there’s no margin for advisors, consumers get left to the tender mercies of the insurer’s “service reps” or the indifference of public servants. Consumers should have the choice to of professional service.

    What do you think Louise does for a living? Get paid for educating us?

    If you’d rather go it on your own, squeeze that margin out of all premiums, take your chances and keep working directly with insurers.

  • http://www.healthinsurancecolorado.net/blog1 Louise

    Jim,
    My intention was not to present an overly-optimistic view of reform, but rather to provide my own opinion as to why public opinion of reform has improved recently. I believe that in general, people judge legislation like this both in terms of their overall political views and in terms of how it will impact them personally. Prior to the last month or so, people had not seen any tangible benefits to health care reform – it was all just words and promises and debates. But several smaller parts of the reform legislation have started to have a real-life impact for people, and mostly in a positive way. For the most part, premiums have not changed (yet), but some people are starting to see benefits for their own situation. My guess is that this is the reason that public opinion of the law has improved. As I mentioned, that opinion will likely be very tied to premium fluctuations as we go forward.

  • http://www.hiexchange.org Jim Sugden

    Guess the impressions we take away from polls depend on the polls we watch. The recent (7/9-7/12) CBS poll shows 36% of respondents favoring Obamacare and 49% opposing it. Guess that 49% hasn’t figured out how to benefit from PPACA yet.

    Most of us can’t wait until the big poll being held on 11/2.

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