Whether it's due to affecting their quality of employee benefits or causing confusion, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is becoming increasingly unpopular, with more people than ever before staunchly against the legislation, a new survey reveals.
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News have performed a joint survey, asking consumers about the bill, since 2009. In its latest results – which were taken between May 30 and June 2 – nearly half of adults called the bill a bad idea, 43 percent of whom strongly felt that this was the case. That's the highest level recorded in the poll's four-year history.
Even among those who get their coverage by purchasing on their own rather than through their workplace are against the ACA. The poll found that among these individuals, approximately 48 percent said that they will most likely be in a worse financial situation as a result of it, with just 13 percent believing it will pay off for them in the end.
There are still those who are very much in favor of the bill. Ron Pollack, who heads the public policy advocacy group Families USA, told the Wall Street Journal that there's a lot of misinformation about the ACA and people will come to like it more once they see it at work.
"People are going to find that this is helpful to them, and that is going to transform the survey data in the future," said Pollack. "We are going to have a totally different conversation."
While the bill does not go fully into effect for seven more months, there are various aspects of the health reform law that are already in place or will soon be. Insurers are currently prohibited from not allowing policyholders to keep their adult children on their plans, so long as they're under the age of 26. Additionally, in October, states that are operating exchanges with the assistance of the federal government will go online, enabling consumers to shop for a policy if they don't have coverage through their workplace.
