A couple of polls appeared on how the public views health care reform. The first was from the Kaiser Family Foundation:
The first Kaiser Health Tracking Poll fielded since the passage of health reform last month finds that 8 in 10 Americans know that President Obama signed the legislation into law. But 55 percent say they are confused about the law and more than half (56%) say they don’t yet have enough information to understand how it will affect them personally.
The poll finds that the public supports many of the provisions of health reform that are set to be implemented in the short term. When asked about 11 specific provisions scheduled to take effect this year, in each case a majority of Americans viewed them favorably, often with bipartisan support.
Still, the public remains divided on the law overall, with 46 percent viewing it favorably, 40 percent unfavorably and 14 percent undecided. Similarly, 31 percent of Americans say they expect personally to be better off because of the law, while 32 percent say they will be worse off and 30 percent say they don’t expect to be affected.
OK, I find it hard to get past the fact that 2 in 10 Americans might not know that the law was passed. But if you can, you still see that so many are confused by health care reform. That’s not good.
Where are people getting their information?
It saddens me that so few are getting their info from my blog, of course. No one is doing a good job, though, if so many are uninformed.
The second survey was released by my group, the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research. I try not to comment on my own work. It feels too much like spinning. But I encourage you to go read it.
