There's no doubt that the nation's uninsured rate has dropped since implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. (Gallup, for one, estimates that the uninsured rate now sits at 13.4 percent, an all-time low.)
But the remaining uninsured population may be hard to reach — especially when most of them don't know about the mandate requiring them to have health insurance.
Nearly half (46 percent) of those who remain uninsured say they still haven't heard of the individual mandate, the law's provision requiring them to get health insurance. And 43 percent have not heard of the exchanges where they may be eligible to purchase health insurance, according to a new Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Health Studies.
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The survey found that 22 percent said they did not obtain health insurance prior to the PPACA deadline because they were not aware of the individual mandate to obtain coverage.
The survey is not the first to underscore the awareness gap of aspects of PPACA, but it's an important indicator of continued consumer confusion less than two months before PPACA's second open enrollment period begins Nov. 15.
Meanwhile, the survey also found that among those who remain uninsured, 11 percent said they did not obtain insurance because it is too expensive, and 27 percent said paying the tax penalty and health expenses costs less than paying for health insurance.
For those who did obtain health coverage through PPACA's exchanges, researchers pointed to better news.
"More than three-quarters (78 percent) of the newly insured population are at least somewhat satisfied with the quality of the health care that they can access," said TCHS executive director Hector De La Torre.
Other key findings from the survey include:
- Among those who remain uninsured, 44 percent are between ages 18 and 34, and 33 percent are Latino;
- 40 percent of uninsured Americans have not gathered information about their personal health, health insurance and the health care system in the past 12 months;
- Less than half (42 percent) of the uninsured could afford health insurance premiums of just $100 per month; and
- About one-fifth (22 percent) of uninsured Americans are currently able to afford routine health expenses, and only 5 percent are currently saving for health care expenses.
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