Health care reform: understanding individuals' attitudes and information sources.

Carolyn K Shue,Ian Reid,Kerry Anne Mcgeary,Maoyong Fan,Jagdish Khubchandani

doi:10.1155/2014/813851

Abstract

Since passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by President Barrack Obama, little is known about state-level perceptions of residents on the ACA. Perceptions about the act could potentially affect implementation of the law to the fullest extent. This 3-year survey study explored attitudes about the ACA, the types of information sources that individuals rely on when creating those attitudes, and the predictors of these attitudes among state of Indiana residents. The respondents were split between favorable and unfavorable views of the ACA, yet the majority of respondents strongly supported individual components of the act. National TV news, websites, family members, and individuals' own reading of the ACA legislation were identified as the most influential information sources. After controlling for potential confounders, the respondent's political affiliation, age, sex, and obtaining ACA information from watching national television news were the most important predictors of attitudes about the ACA and its components. These results mirror national-level findings. Implications for implementing health care reform at the state-level are discussed.

Highlights

In March of 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law health care reform legislation focused on expanding access to affordable health care coverage, controlling rising health care costs, and improving health care delivery [1]
Our goal was to understand the views of Americans at the state level and how those views may be reflective of, or in opposition to, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and national-level public opinion polls regarding health care reform
Individuals in our sample have formed their perceptions of the overall ACA based primarily on political affiliation and relied heavily on information gained from the national news media

Summary

Introduction

In March of 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law health care reform legislation focused on expanding access to affordable health care coverage, controlling rising health care costs, and improving health care delivery [1]. In June 2010, an Associated Press-GfK opinion poll found an overall increase in support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Public opinion in January of 2011 suggested the overall views regarding health care reform remained split with an even number of Americans supporting and opposing the law [4]. While health care reform was a factor in the race, it was not a driving factor and opinions did not vacillate much from the trends that began in April of 2010 [7]. The KFF Poll conducted in the wake of the governmental shutdown, October 2013, demonstrated a slight dip in the favorable views with 38% in favor of the legislation and 44% opposed [8].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion