Time for GOP to move on: Satisfaction with Obamacare sky high

The days of national debate over Obamacare may be over. The Republicans may want to move on to other issues.

The most comprehensive survey yet of Obamacare enrollees finds that the vast majority are happy with their insurance plans. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll released today found that three-quarters of those with Marketplace coverage from Affordable Care Act rate their overall coverage as excellent or good. Only 7 percent say it’s poor.

When the survey drilled down it found that at least seven in ten say they are “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with their plan’s choice of primary care doctors, hospitals, co-pays for doctor’s visits, and prescription coverage. About two-thirds say they are satisfied with their choice of specialists.

Clearly, the mess created by the disastrous healthcare.gov rollout is long gone.

A large majority of those who renewed an ACA plan this year told KFF that it was very or somewhat easy to renew. About half were automatically re-enrolled, while 46 percent say they took action to renew – and in some cases modify -- their coverage.

In addition, most enrollees say their initial shopping for the right plan was easy.

However, the survey is not all good news for President Obama’s health care reforms.

Those with high-deductible plans are much less satisfied with their ACA insurance than other enrollees. And, like nearly everything else in America these days, a partisan political divide tilts the scales.
Despite the widespread satisfaction with the Marketplace system, when politics was thrown into the mix 55 percent of Republican enrollees say they still have a “very unfavorable” view of the ACA while 45 percent  of Democrats proclaim a “very favorable” view.

Sarah Kliff of Vox explains those numbers this way: “The law, for many, has become a proxy for what people think about President Obama, and less about what the health reform law actually does.”