Californians’ support for Obamacare remains strong as the launch of the state’s health insurance marketplace nears, a new survey shows.
Fifty-three percent of voters support the health reform law and 38 percent oppose it, researchers found.
Yet “voters continue to view the (Affordable Care Act) through a highly partisan lens,” said organizers of the of the 2013 TCWF-Field Health Policy Survey.
There are dramatic regional divisions as well.
“While the law is supported greater than two to one among voters in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area, pluralities in the state’s other regions are opposed,” the researchers said in releasing their Obamacare poll results Aug. 20.
“Almost twice as many Californians have greater trust in state government than the federal government to implement the law,” the researchers said, perhaps reflecting the widely held perception that California is a national leader in adoption of the Affordable Care Act.
The survey found a significant knowledge gap remains among Californians, with only 15 percent of the voters surveyed saying they were “very knowledgeable” about health care reform under the Affordable Care Act.
While 60 percent of respondents said they had “some knowledge” of Obamacare provisions, one in four reported little or no familiarity with the subject. There has been a flood of media coverage in recent months, but much of it has centered on the continuing political debates in Washington.
“It is so complicated even for the experts to understand,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo told the Associated Press. “When you think you know a little more, it raises more questions.”
About half of those surveyed said Congress should keep the health reform law as it is, heading into the Jan. 1, 2014, launch of the state health insurance exchanges. In favor of repealing part or all of the law were 38 percent.
The political polarization remains powerful, the surveyers said:
Voters who identify themselves as being strongly liberal in politics are nearly universal in their support of the law (90 percent to 4 percent). At the other extreme, voters who consider themselves strongly conservative are opposed 83 percent to 15 percent.
White non-Hispanics narrowly opposed the law (49 percent to 44 percent), while Latinos backed it 2 1/2 to 1. Support among African Americans and those of Asian descent remained strong.
Californians under age 30 overwhelmingly supported Obamacare, despite widespread reports that their insurance premiums would be the most likely to rise. Seniors were about evenly split, the survey found.
The TCWF-Field Health Policy Survey collected the opinions of 1,687 California registered voters via phone interviews. The survey, funded a grant from the California Wellness Foundation, was conducted June 26-July 21.
Read the Health Policy Survey findings on Obamacare (PDF).
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