May 1st, 2013 – According to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 42% of Americans do not know that the Affordable Care Act (aka “ObamaCare”) is law. In fact, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23rd, 2010.
12% of Americans wrongly think it was repealed by Congress, 7% think the Supreme Court overturned it and 23% don’t know if it is law or not. To be clear, no aspect of the law was repealed and last summer the Supreme Court upheld the controversial “individual mandate” that Americans be required to have health insurance or pay penalties.
The law remains marginally unpopular, with 40% of Americans having an unfavorable opinion and 35% having a favorable view of the law. 49% of Americans said they still don’t have enough information to understand how the Affordable Care Act will impact their and their families’ lives when it comes into full force in 2014.
Yesterday, President Obama said, “Despite all the hue and cry and ‘sky is falling’ predictions about this stuff, if you’ve already got health insurance, then that part of ‘Obamacare’ that affects you, it’s pretty much already in place.” The “only impact” on people who already have insurance “is that their insurance is stronger, better, more secure than it was before,” Obama contended. “They don’t have to worry about anything else. The implementation issues come up for those who don’t have health insurance.”
