Most of the nation’s uninsured are “disengaged” from the ongoing enrollment process under the Affordable Care Act, a health-care survey indicates.
Just 15 percent of those without health insurance are aware that Jan. 31 is the deadline to enroll for Obamacare coverage, the Kaiser Family Foundation survey suggests. The majority (57 percent) of those surveyed could not identify the deadline day, which has been widely publicized and promoted by the government and health-care advocates.
About half of the uninsured said they were aware that they face federal penalties for not having qualified coverage. About half said they did not think they had to pay the penalty.
About 70 percent said they had not tried to figure out if they qualified for subsidized insurance or Medicaid. A similar percentage said they had not been contacted in any way about getting out of the ranks of the uninsured.
“Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) say they plan to get health insurance in the next few months, despite the fact that nearly half (46 percent) of the uninsured say they have been without coverage for two years or more,” the Kaiser Family Foundation report found.
The group’s Health Tracking Poll, conducted Jan. 13-19, found that issues surrounding Obamacare ranked eighth to them in the presidential election. Terrorism ranked No. 1 and the economy was No. 2.
A fall 2015 study in California found that more uninsured consumers know about the federal tax penalty for not having insurance than know about the subsidies available to most low-income buyers of policies. More than a third of those without health insurance in California were unaware of the financial incentives offered via the state’s Obamacare operation, the California Affordable Care Act “Consumer Tracking Survey” shows
Speak Your Mind