Were consumers able to go back in time, they would have preferred that the Affordable Care Act be passed with mutual support from Democrats and Republicans, rather than signed into law the way it turned out to be.
That's according to new survey data performed by researchers from Robert Morris University. The RMU Polling Institute questioned approximately 1,000 adults about their opinions regarding the ACA, such as whether they think it's a good law, if they anticipate having to change doctors as a result of the reform and if they suspect they may need to purchase a different plan because their current one isn't sufficient.
Among the responses, nearly two-thirds of respondents said they didn't expect having to change primary care providers and slightly more than half said that they forecasted being able to keep the plan that they had, whether private or employee benefits derived.
Where there was a considerable amount of unanimity was with regards to how the law came to be. By a two-to-one margin, respondents indicated that they would like to have seen health reform passed with a consensus.
When the bill was passed by the Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama, not a single Republican in either the Senate or House of Representatives voted in favor of the measure.
"Considering the Affordable Care Act is a market-based reform with key elements like the individual mandate taken directly from conservative proposals developed two decades ago, I think the majority of respondents wishing there had been more bipartisanship in the process may reflect dissatisfaction with how the polarized debate played out in the media during the law's passage," said Joseph Angelelli, director of the health services administration at RMU.
The health care system in the U.S. represents approximately one-sixth of the economy, or the equivalent of just over 19 percent of the gross domestic product.
