Public confusion about the status of the Affordable Care Act continues, according to this month's Kaiser Health Tracking Poll [pdf]. Sadly, nearly 40 percent of the population either thinks that the Supreme Court has already overturned the law, or are unsure of its status.
That's the power of the Wurlitzer, and the focus of the traditional media on the controversy of the law rather than the facts of the law. That's borne out by the fact that, two years after passage of the law, "six in ten Americans say they don’t currently have enough information about the health reform law to understand how it will impact them personally." The media has spent far more time focusing on challenges to the law than the law's policies, so the average person is going to have to work to seek out that information.
Among those who are aware that the ACA is the law of the land, a two-thirds majority remains opposed to the individual mandate, "including 54 percent who feel “very unfavorable” (up from 43 percent last November)." That number tracks very closely with how respondents expect the Court to rule.
In line with these views, about half the public (51 percent) thinks the Court should rule that the mandate is unconstitutional, while just under three in ten (28 percent) think it should be ruled constitutional, and another one in five don’t know enough to say. Similarly, about half expect the Court to strike down the mandate as unconstitutional (53 percent) while a third expect them to find it constitutional (33 percent).
One really interesting aspect of the polling illuminates just how much the ACA has become a proxy for government itself.
Among those who are against the law, "a larger proportion say their opposition is based at least in part on their displeasure with the direction of the country in general (and the direction of Washington in particular) than say it is based on what they know about the law." The three years of relentless Republican attacks and lies about the law, the complicated nature of it, the fact that information about it isn't readily available to the public, all combine to make it the perfect target for general dissatisfaction with how our federal government is working.
There are a few upsides, here. Slowly, very slowly, seniors are becoming more supportive of the law to the point where as many are supportive (44 percent) as opposed (42 percent). They've seen their prescription drug costs lowered, get more free screening and services, are not having to pay more for Medicare, and aren't being subject to death panels, which is perhaps why they're slowly coming around.
In the general population, the edge still goes to those who want to keep or expand the law, 47 to 41, and the majority wants Congress to keep working on making health care more affordable. "Six in ten say that in the wake of a ruling unfavorable to the ACA, lawmakers should focus on developing new proposals to improve Americans’ access to affordable health care, while a third say policymakers should stop talking about health care and focus on other national problems." Even a slim majority of Republicans thinks it's a priority.