9 out of 10 uninsured are unaware of upcoming Obamacare open enrollment
The millions of Americans who lack health insurance will have another chance to sign up for coverage on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges starting Nov. 15, but a new survey shows they are largely unaware of that fact.
The Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that nearly nine of every 10 people who are uninsured are unaware that open enrollment opens in November. Three quarters of those people, or 76 percent, did not know when open enrollment begins and an additional 13 percent named a date other than November 2013.
There were about 41 million uninsured Americans in the first quarter of this year, which is about 8 percent lower than in 2013, according to the National Health Interview Survey, a highly respected report from federal researchers.
Still, 59 percent of people who completed the survey say they expect to get coverage within the next few months. Fifteen percent think they will get insurance from an employer, another 15 percent plan to purchase it themselves through a private company or the marketplace, and 8 percent expect to get it through Medicaid. Roughly one in every five people who said they expect to get insurance are not sure where they will get coverage.
There continues to be an overall negative view of the health care law, with 43 percent saying they view it unfavorably and just 36 percent viewing it favorably, but the vast majority do not want to see the health care law repealed. Two-thirds of the public, or 64 percent, say they would rather see their elected representatives work to improve the law rather than repeal and replace it with something else. That number is higher among Democrats (86 percent) than Republicans (65 percent).
Just one third of respondents, 33 percent, say the law should be repealed and replaced.