Poll: Nearly half of Americans don't know status of health reform Posted: February 25th, 2011

Recent court rulings and a Congressional vote to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has apparently created confusion among the American public. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a nationwide survey on health reform and discovered that approximately one in five respondents erroneously believes the law is no longer in effect.

In recent months, five federal judges have ruled on the constitutionality of the health reform law. Three have upheld its provisions while two have determined it unconstitutional. Analysts speculate that the issue will ultimately have to be decided by the Supreme Court. In addition, Congress voted earlier in the year to repeal the PPACA. However, the Senate is not expected to take up the repeal bill.

The court cases and congressional action seem to have created uncertainty about the status of health reform. In the Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 22 percent say that health reform has been repealed while an additional 26 percent report that they do not know the status of the law.

However, even among those favoring a repeal of health reform, support for individual provisions within the PPACA have wide support. Only increased Medicare taxes for the wealthy and the individual health insurance mandate were opposed by a majority of those indicating that health reform should be repealed.