Many Can’t Afford An Exchange Plan

More than a third of the uninsured say they tried to get coverage through the exchanges, but found it too expensive, according to a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. When asked why they don’t have health insurance, 39% say that it’s too expensive; 22% are unemployed or working for an employer that doesn’t offer coverage; 11% haven’t gotten around to getting coverage or missed the deadline to apply, and 9% say they don’t want or need coverage. Despite the announcement that at least 8 million people have signed up for health insurance through the ACA’s new marketplace, favorability of the law remains exactly where it was in last month’s tracking poll, with 46% of the public saying they have an unfavorable view and 38% a favorable view. This is a slight improvement over polls taken from November through January, but still represents a more negative tilt to opinion than was measured in Kaiser tracking surveys before the troubled launch of the exchanges last October. However, the public is inclined to give the law a chance to work rather than throwing it out and starting over. Fifty-eight percent want their representative in Congress to work to improve the law while 35% want them to work on repealing it and replacing it with something else. For more information, visit http://kff.org/health-reform/poll-finding/kaiser-health-tracking-poll-april-2014/