Six years after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law, the number of nonelderly Americans with health insurance has expanded by twenty million, and the uninsurance rate has declined nearly 9 percentage points. Nevertheless, public opinion about the law remains deeply divided. We investigated how individuals may be experiencing and responding to health reform implementation by analyzing three waves of a panel study we conducted in 2010, 2012, and 2014. …
We found that beneath the din of conflict over general assessments of the law, support for its provisions is on the rise, as is a willingness to let it work instead of repealing it. A toxic political atmosphere—not the popularity of the ACA’s tangible benefits—remains the barrier to public support. CONT.
Lawrence R. Jacobs (U. of Minn.) & Suzanne Mettler (Cornell), Health Affairs