Public opinion can best be defined as not only the desires and wants but also the way the majority of people often think. In other words, public opinion is the overall opinion people of a certain society or a state about a certain subject of interest. Human beings tend to be very opinionated about certain things as everyone feels it is only right that they are entitled to their own personal opinions whatsoever the issue or matter. This essay focuses on public opinion in healthcare particularly regarding the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act as it is commonly known as, or Patient Protection is a federal statute in the United States that was enacted by President Barack Obama (Shin 2016). The Affordable Care Act was made in order to increase health insurance of the people as well as increasing the affordability of healthcare services by lowering the uninsured rate through expansion of coverage (Shin 2016).
Since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in the United States, a great number of people have benefited through gaining health coverage while the ones already insured were able to receive new protections. However, public opinion of this Affordable Care Act tends to remain mixed as recent research has shown that the percentage of the ones in favor of the Affordable Care Act is much lower than of the ones not in favor of it. Since the enactment of the Act, most seniors were aided in regards to affording their drug prescriptions as well as ensuring that insurance companies no longer have the capacity to drop from coverage the people who fall ill or refuse to provide coverage to people with conditions that are pre-existing (Shin 2016). Despite all these benefits, the way the public assessed the law did not improve as the assessments have remained to be divided and largely negative. The political government has been proven by thorough research to be the culprit as the attitudes of distrust that often prevail in government as well as the ingrained attitudes and strong partisanship that are not features of the law have instigated the public to have a negative opinion (Cooper et.al 2016).
It has been seen that the Affordable Care Act tends to remain highly politicized as Republicans have often voted for the delay or repeal of the law very many times and through its nickname “ObamaCare”, people are primed to think of the Care Act via a political lens. A recent survey that was conducted has shown that most enrollees of the Affordable Care Act are completely not satisfied with their plans as half of them have often rated the value of the coverage they have as fair or poor. As a result of this, the number of those unhappy people enrolled into the ObamaCare Act due to the premiums as well as deductibles has been viewed to be increasing (Cooper et.al 2016). Regardless of the campaign to which the Obama administration has subjected the public, most Americans are now in favor of the law being repealed which in turn makes them split regarding the idea of keeping the Affordable Care Act.
The public opinion of the Affordable Care Act is divided also due to the fact that most Liberals in the United States completely hate ObamaCare. This is because recent polls have shown that most liberals who fought very hard to get the Affordable Care Act passed are now the ones neglecting it and are seen to be very embarrassed to be in association with it (Shin 2016). Liberals also hate the ObamaCare due to the fact that people only have the ability to purchase their health insurance from only one company on the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges in certain areas of the country. Another reason why the ObamaCare is hated by the liberals is because it is causing the premiums to rise which is something that appears to be a great shock to them (Cooper et.al 2016). At the beginning, the ObamaCare promised the liberals that in case they got to like their insurance plans, they would get to actually keep them which according to them turned out to be not true. This is another reason why the liberals are now abandoning the Affordable Care Act which in turn leads to a great number of employers no longer offering health insurance to their employees.
The efforts by Liberals and other republicans in the United States to repeal the Affordable Care Act by President Barack Obama has caught the eyes of lobbyists in the health industry which leads the representatives of insurance companies, doctors, hospitals as well as pharmaceuticals to be left struggling for a response to a legislative strike. Lobbyists especially in Washington are fighting in preparing their clients for the likelihood of chaos that would arise from them striking down insurance subsidies that are under the Affordable Care Act (Johnston et.al 2014). Threats by lobbyists in regards to insurance companies is not pleasing because the companies could potentially experience great losses in case people are in any way forced to drop their coverage. However, this ruling could also potentially affect doctors, hospitals and others who are greatly involved in healthcare and its systems (Shin 2016).
Lobby firms have mastered their practices in healthcare in order to meet the demand that is growing to prepare them for whatever decision is made by the Supreme Court in regards to the Affordable Care Act. This has led to some Republicans hoping that the government wins the case so that they can throw more rocks at the Affordable Care Act. There is no much difference between public opinion and lobbyist portrayal of public opinion because it is seen that lobbyists often take part in organized attempts to influence legislators (Cooper et.al 2016). Although lobbyists use attempts to influence others, they still manage to influence the people’s perception of the ObamaCare which in turns influences their public opinion of the Affordable Care Act (Johnston et.al 2016). It is quite evident that the public opinion by people has greatly influenced the way people in the United States assess the Affordable Care Act and explains why more people are against the ObamaCare than for it with valid reasons as to why this is the case. Therefore, public opinion is of great influence to not only how people perceive something, but also to the state and nation as a whole.
References
Cooper, R. W., & Gardner, L. A. (2016). Extensive Changes and Major Challenges Encountered in Health Insurance Markets under the Affordable Care Act. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 70(5), 53-71.
Johnston, C. D., Hillygus, D. S., & Bartels, B. L. (2014). Ideology the Affordable Care Act Ruling and Supreme Court Legitimacy. Public Opinion Quarterly, 78(4), 963-973
Shin, P., & Regenstein, M. (2016). After the Affordable Care Act: Health Reform and the Safety Net. Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 44(4), 585-588
