Poll: Americans still confused by new healthcare reform law

Author: [none given]

If you don't know much about the healthcare reform bill passed in March, you're not alone.

When 2,100 adults were given a list of 18 reform items and asked to identify which were part of the law and which weren't, most of those polled correctly identified only four items, according to findings from a Harris Interactive survey. The online survey polled 2,100 adults between July 15 and 19.

When it comes to getting the message out, it seems the administration needs to improve its communications strategy.

Here are some areas were a general cluelessness among those polled prevailed:

• 82 percent think the bill will result in rationing of healthcare or that it might (it won't); 
• 79 percent don't know or aren't sure if drug companies will pay an annual fee, (they will); 
• 73 percent don't know the law establishes a new tax on the sale of medical devices; 
• 66 percent don't know or aren't sure if the legislation will result in insurance exchanges where people can shop for insurance, (it will); and 
• 63 percent either aren't sure or don't know if the new law will increase the number of people eligible for Medicaid, (it will).

Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll, attributed the confusion about the reform to its being "fiendishly complicated." He also credited the long and heated political debate that surrounded the bill before it passed. "The level of ignorance and misinformation is sort of astounding," he said in a statement. "It seems people are still reacting to the rhetoric, not the substance of what is in the bill, because they don't actually know what is or is not in the actual legislation."

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