PPACA bends the reality curve

At the end of last year, I wrote that the debate over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s impact would be settled once its main provisions took effect. Republicans thought out-of-pocket health costs would rise and access to their doctors would decrease; Democrats didn’t. “One of two things will happen in 2014,” I predicted:

The first is that access to doctors will fall and the cost of care will go up for most Americans; Democrats will (gradually) realize they’ve been misled, and support for the law will collapse. The second possibility is that access to doctors and the cost of care won’t change for most Americans; Republicans will (gradually) realize they’ve been misled, and the case against PPACA will disintegrate for the average voter.

It turns out there was a third option: Reality would be no match for people’s partisan predispositions, and Democrats and Republicans would continue to disagree — even about changes in their personal access to health care. That’s exactly what’s happened, according to a new survey from Bankrate.

See also: So much for the new patient surge