The Unimpressed Uninsured
Gallup reports:
Uninsured Americans who have visited a health insurance exchange website mostly say their experience was negative rather than positive, by 59% to 39%. That reading, from Gallup Daily tracking throughout December, is only a slight improvement from Gallup's combined October and November polling, when 63% reported a negative experience and 33% a positive one.
The latest figures are based on Dec. 1-29 Gallup Daily tracking interviews with more than 1,500 uninsured Americans, including roughly 450 who have visited a health insurance exchange website. Since the exchanges opened on Oct. 1, the federally run websites have been plagued by technical problems, while the state-run exchanges have reportedly performed better. Among uninsured Americans who have visited an exchange, 24% say they went to a federal exchange, 20% to a state exchange, 17% to both, and 37% are unsure.
The Obama administration set a goal of having the major technical problems with the federal exchanges fixed by Nov. 30. Thus, all of the recent interviews followed that date. However, some of the respondents interviewed in December may have visited exchanges prior to Nov. 30. Still, the update suggests the website fixes have not dramatically improved the customer experience for uninsured Americans seeking health insurance to comply with requirements of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare."
