AP-GfK poll: Health law seen as eroding coverage

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and JENNIFER AGIESTA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama's health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly.

An Associated Press-GfK poll finds that health care remains politically charged going into next year's congressional elections. Keeping the refurbished HealthCare.gov website running smoothly is just one of Obama's challenges, maybe not the biggest.

The poll found a striking level of unease about the law among people who have health insurance and aren't looking for government help. Those are the 85 percent of Americans who the White House says don't have to be worried about the president's historic push to expand coverage for the uninsured.

In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year - mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law's passage.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131215/DAAMSNEO0.html

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In this Dec. 4, 2013 file photo, President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the new health care law during a White House Youth Summit, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. Americans who already have health insurance are blaming President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul for their rising premiums and deductibles, and overall 3 in 4 say the rollout of coverage for the uninsured has gone poorly. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

[Swede Atlanta]

1. The individuals who feel their employer-based healthcare is eroding are wrong!

I have employer-based health care. My premiums rose about $15 a month for 2014, the most in about 4 years.

What these people are not seeing is that (a) there are caps on co-pays and (b) preventive care is now covered without a co-pay.

On average I was spending about $630.00 on preventive care if you take into account co-pays and deductibles. In 2014 that number will be zero.

The American people never look at what is inside the box. They just see the same Crazy Rabbit on the outside of the Trix box and don't like it when the box costs $.30 more.

[LiberalFighter]

2. Consumers are easy to fool.

It happens a lot when packaging changes. Like reducing the size but the price is the same. Or car dealers giving you a good deal up front but then you get a lot of add ons that are needed and are inflated.

[Veilex]

11. Add to the mix that...

insurance companies now have to pay back rebates on what isn't used on the majority of the premium!
Thats a really big deal!

[LiberalFighter]

3. Too much from the AP is slanted or missing info.

[lostincalifornia]

14. AP has been slanted for some time now

[politichew]

4. I hate when polls ask people if they feel something is causing something.

Feelings do not equal facts.

Highly irresponsible to report it as such because our uneducated public will adopt this as fact and future polls will reflect that.

[christx30]

5. Though if they feel that

something is causing something bad, they are more apt to vote to get rid of that thing.

[politichew]

8. Because of false narratives put forth by frauduelent news organizations. nt

[Dawson Leery]

7. This poll contrasts with other which put support for the ACA in the low 40's.

[Diego_Native 2012]

6. The poll merely shows that 4 out of 5 people with employer based coverage

are clueless about what is causing their premiums to increase and their benefits to decrease.

This isn't new. It's been happening for decades. Erosion of benefits (which the ACA helps to stem, by the way, by mandating minimum coverage levels) is caused by employers looking to save money and by insurance companies and providers trying to maximize profits. Medical cost increases are at historic lows, in no small part due to the changes instituted by the ACA, but also due to recessionary pressures on consumer medical spending.

Part of the problem is consumers in employer based health plans have been insulated from the true cost of health care and are now having more of that burden shifted to them via premium increases, less employer contributions, and lower benefits. Is that the fault of the ACA? No. The continuum for these changes have been in place for a long, long time. For seventeen years I underwrote employer group health plans beginning in the early 90's. This transition to high cost, low benefit plans in which employees bear more of the cost burden has been going on at least since I began my career. It is the rare employer who ever asks for higher benefits, higher cost plans. It is an even rarer employer that plans to increase their contribution toward the premium.

Blaming Obama and the ACA is misdirected. An aim, I'm sure,that is being well supported by employers, insurance companies, brokers and consultants who will take any and every opportunity to move the burden of health costs toward employees...especially if they can do so without accepting any of the blame themselves.

[Demit]

13. Very well written, concise & clear synopsis of what is happening.

This should be a letter to the editor of every newspaper in the country. It should be a post on everyone's Facebook page as rebuttal to every complaint about Obamacare. Good job, Diego Native.

[davidpdx]

23. +1 to what Demit said

Don't change a word. I urge you to zip it off in an email.

[TomCADem]

9. MSM Spends Weeks Pumping Out Misleading and Slanted Stories...

...that ignore the hundreds of thousands who have gained access to healthcare, then runs a poll asking if healthcare has improved and expanded even though objectively it has. Is preventive care now covered? Yes. Can children under 26 be covered under parent's plan? Yes. Can you be dropped for pre-existing conditions? No.

Yet, many in the public who have listened to the MSM think that coverage has shrunken when this is objectively not true.

[iemitsu]

10. Whether or not it is the ACA's fault,

the cost of my employer provided health care doubled this year and I have had to change to a plan that covers less and has larger co-payments and deductibles. I have worked for the same school district for more than 20 years and every raise I should have gotten in the last 15 years was eaten up by the increasing cost of health care.
The ACA was a lame and expensive idea to go with when we have many single payer models we should have used, to develop a decent and universal system here.
IMO, nearly every problem the ACA has had would have not been problematic if all Americans received the same care, from cradle to grave, with no out-of-pocket expense. That system would have congresspeople and the president getting exactly what the rest of us get so it would not be the sub-standard, over-priced crap that citizens hope for today.
We need to demonstrate that we believe in equality by providing equal access to health-care for all.

[dotymed]

12. You said it for me, thanks.

The only problem with universal healthcare....no profits for the oligarchs.

The insurers, big pharma, etc....GREED.

[Demit]

15. Sure! Now all we have to do is elect the Congress that will pass that. Easy peasy!

I will now be able to afford health insurance. I will now be able to GET health insurance, for the first time in 12 years. Everybody—including you—will get wellness doctor visits free of charge. The doughnut hole for seniors will be closed. There's no more lifetime cap crap that insurance companies can pull on you, at a time when you would most need it. Insurance companies can't cherrypick anymore who they will cover in order to maximize their profits. Insurance companies are now regulated by law to spend a higher percentage of what they take in from you on actual healthcare, rather than profits & lobbying.

I don't call that lame. I call it a damned sight better than what we had before.

[RBInMaine]

21. You are speaking outside the realms of reality. Single payer could not PASS. What don't you get?

[iemitsu]

22. I don't get defeatist attitudes. Sorry.

There is no reason we could not have decent health care that covers all citizens, equally, just like other civilized countries, but if there is no will to have such a thing it probably won't ever happen.

[Fred Sanders]

16. Classic Push Poll

....confirms AP is all in on trashing the most decent, intelligent and compassionate President in history.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

17. But, according to Republicans, polls don't matter.

But I'm sure they will trot out this craptacular turdfest poll immediately.

[blackspade]

18. What a bullshit story.

In the survey, nearly half of those with job-based or other private coverage say their policies will be changing next year - mostly for the worse. Nearly 4 in 5 (77 percent) blame the changes on the Affordable Care Act, even though the trend toward leaner coverage predates the law's passage.

No shit it was happening already. Coverage has gotten shittier for the last decade at least as well as more expensive.
This has nothing to do with Obamacare.

[CBHagman]

19. Since there's never been 24/7 coverage of how medical bills are the top cause of bankruptcy...

...it's possible this reflects the effect of the media focus. Though in previous years I have seen some news stories about premiums rising, including some rather dramatic changes in the early 2000s, there's been nothing like the intense focus of recent days on the HealthCare.gov website.

[RBInMaine]

20. Don't post this SHIT! AP is FOX NEW IN PRINT. It is total and utterly complete SHIT.

[davidpdx]

24. I agree with your sentiment

But knowing what shit is out there is good to be able to counter it. Granted I know it raises the blood pressure a few points because of the fact it's pure bullshit.