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With many people worried
about affording unexpected medical bills, the poll also finds most (56%)
people with private insurance say they know nothing at all about a
federal law that took effect in January that protects people from
receiving unexpectedly large medical bills when they unknowingly receive
out-of-network care. Fewer say they know “a lot” (3%), “some” (18%) or “a
little” (22%) about the law.
The poll also finds:
- Half
(51%) say they have delayed or gone without health care in the past
year due to costs. This includes about a third who skipped dental
care (35%), and a quarter who skipped vision care (25%) and doctor’s
visits (24%). Some also skipped mental health care (18%), hospital
services (14%), and hearing services, including hearing aids (10%).
- With
drug prices a major part of President Biden’s agenda, 29% of adults,
including 43% of those with annual household incomes under of
$40,000, say they either did not fill a prescription, cut pills in
half or skipped doses, or took an over-the-counter product instead
of a prescription due to cost in the past year.
As the Affordable Care
Act Turns 12, Most People Continue to View the Law Favorably
Twelve years after its enactment, most (55%) of the public views the
Affordable Care Act favorably. About a quarter (24%) of people say that
the law has helped them, while 1 in 5 (20%) say that has hurt them. The
most common way that people say that they were helped is by providing
coverage to someone in their family, while the most common way people say
they were hurt is by increasing costs.
There are major partisan differences. Most Democrats (87%) view the law
favorably, and many (43%) say it directly helped them and their families.
In contrast, most Republicans (79%) view the law unfavorably, and many
(40%) say it has hurt them and their families. Independents mostly view
the law favorably (58%), with a quarter (24%) saying the law has helped
them and 16% saying it has hurt them.
Other findings include:
- President
Biden discussed improving care for residents of nursing homes and
other long-term care facilities in his State of the Union address.
Most of the public says that they are doing a “bad job” of
maintaining adequate staffing (70%), offering affordable care (64%),
and providing high-quality care (54%). Views of long-term care
facilities are consistent across age groups.
- About
two thirds (65%) of people living in the 12 states that haven’t
expanded their Medicaid programs under the ACA to cover more
low-income uninsured people say that their state should, while one
third (34%) say their state shouldn’t.
Designed and analyzed by
public opinion researchers at KFF, the KFF Health Tracking Poll was
conducted from March 15-22 among a nationally representative sample of
1,243 adults. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish online
(974) and by telephone (269). The margin of sampling error is plus or
minus 4 percentage points for the full sample. For results based on
subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher.
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