Health Care

Poll: Only 15 percent say they have benefited from ObamaCare

Just 15 percent of people say they have personally benefited from ObamaCare, although more than one-third believe it has helped the people of their state, according to a poll released Monday.

Most Americans — a total of 56 percent — say they haven’t felt directly affected by the Affordable Care Act. Among those who have felt affected, more people say the law has hurt them than helped them, according to polling by National Public Radio and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

{mosads}Twenty-six percent of U.S. adults say they have been personally harmed by the healthcare law since its passage — a fraction that likely reflects those in the poll who said they have noticed rising healthcare costs in the last several years. 

And while the majority of adults said they believed their healthcare costs were “reasonable,” many said those costs were becoming less affordable over time.

The mixed views, found by polling 1,002 people nationally, reflects the polarization in the country on ObamaCare and healthcare generally.

The national poll included 1,002 responses with a margin of error of 3.8. Researchers also polled more than 1,000 people in each of seven different states.

Twenty-six percent of Americans say the cost of healthcare has been a serious strain on their finances in the last two years. About 40 percent of those facing financial struggles because of their medical bills said they have spent all or most of their savings accounts on large bills. About one in five people said they’ve been forced to forgo prescriptions because they can’t afford them. 

Still, nearly three-quarters of adults say they get “good value for what they pay toward the cost” of their health care.