As we draw nearer to 2014 when many provisions of the Affordable Care Act are implemented, the members of the public are being inundated with information about how it will impact them.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the public’s awareness of such things as the new insurance marketplaces is growing. However, a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation released Wednesday indicates people are skeptical about the sources of information they are receiving.
Starting Oct. 1, people lacking insurance can begin enrolling in plans through online marketplaces, also called exchanges, which will be run by the federal government, 16 states and the District of Columbia. Indiana is not one of the states running an exchange. About 7 million people next year will get coverage under these policies, which take effect Jan. 1, according to the Congressional Budget Office. By 2017 that number is expected to grow to 24 million people.
Supporters of the law and insurance companies have begun mobilizing to educate people about new insurance offerings, information from Kaiser Health News service said.
With newspapers, magazines and broadcast media outlets being crowded with many varying opinions about the law, particularly from partisan lawmakers, it comes as no surprise that trust is lacking.
The new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 33 percent of the public reported hearing “a lot” or “some” information about the exchanges, up from 22 percent in June.
Most of the public, 81 percent, said they heard “something” about the law from the media. “But only 8 percent of respondents said they have ‘a lot’ of trust in the news media,” Kaiser reported.
This, perhaps, is because the media parrots much information from lawmakers and other elected officials who have strong, partisan feelings about the Affordable Care Act that may or may not be accurate.
Social media ranked lowest in the poll with only 3 percent of respondents trusting this source of information.
“The most commonly cited source of accurate information about the law are doctors and nurses, with 44 percent of the public citing them as trustworthy resources,” Kaiser reported. However, only 22 percent of people said this was their source of information on the health law.
The public remains split on the health care law, with 42 percent opposing and 37 percent supporting.
It is interesting to note, in the Kaiser poll 57 percent oppose cutting off funding, which has been a big push of Republican members of Congress. Only 36 percent favor defunding the law.
“The most popular reason for opposing defunding is a procedural one: That if lawmakers want to get rid of the law, they should repeal it, not undermine it by cutting off funds,” Kaiser reported.
The poll was conducted Aug. 13-19 among 1,503 adults and has a margin of error is 3 percentage points.
This poll shows people need to try to seek out as much accurate information as possible. And the media, as the greatest provider of information on the Affordable Care Act, should try less coverage of the partisan bickering in Washington and seek to provide more detailed information about the mechanics of the law, from which everyone could benefit.