A new survey shows the number of Americans opposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act despends on how it’s described. In general, only 33 percent of Americans support the individual mandate – that’s the provision that requires all Americans to carry health insurance. 65 percent oppose it. But according to a new poll from the Kaiswer Family Foundation, opposition swells to 74 percent after people are told the mandate is being challenged as unconsitutional. And opposition spikes to 80 percent when people are told the mandate “could mean that some people would be required to buy health insurance that they find too expensive or did not want.”
But those opinions sway if the question is worded differently. When poll respondents are told that without the mandate, people might wait until they are seriously ill to obtain coverage, driving up insurance costs for everyone, forty-seven percent support the mandate. And an even larger percent (49 percent) bac the mandate when told that without it, insurers could refuse to cover sick people and when told people would be excused from having to buy insurance if the cost would “consume too large a share of their income.”
Swaying the results even more, sixty-one percent of those surveyed support it when told most Americans would still get their coverage through their employers and thus wouldn’t be affected by the mandate.
Clearly, the public is not only confused about the law, but can be easily swayed depending on who is asking their opinion and how the questions are phrased. Read More