Do Voters Love the ACA?

(Click the play button on the audio player above to listen to this segment of the ACA panel discussion)

This HCPLive audio panel discussion features:

• Joel Zinberg MD, JD, Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City
• David Sandman PhD, Senior Vice President of the New York State Health Foundation
• Patrick Cronin, New Jersey organizing director for “Get Covered America” a nonprofit with a federal contract to help people sign up for coverage
• Tom Wilson (moderator), a partner at Kaufman Zita Group and former chairman of the NJ Republican State Committee

The panelists look at how well the ACA is working and discuss whether it is politically vulnerable.

A Gallup survey shows that many American do not approve of the ACA, yet more than 10 million people have coverage because of it. Cronin tells of talking to uninsured people who say they don’t like” Obamacare,” but are eager to sign up for ACA coverage—a communications issue. Zinberg agrees some people are confused about what the ACA is, but others are unhappy at losing their old coverage or doctors because plans had to withdraw from the marketplace.

At Enroll America, the non-profit with a federal contract to help people sign up for insurance on federally run health insurance exchanges, workers say the uninsured want coverage.

“When you explain [the ACA] to them, people end up saying ‘yes, I do want this’,"Cronin says.

But there are problems, ranging from communication issues to disappoint with plans.

“You have an awful lot of people who are very disgruntled, a lot of employers," Zinberg says.