Most Americans satisfied with health coverage, survey finds

More than 60 percent of working-age Americans who signed up for Medicaid or a private health plan through the Affordable Care Act are getting health care that they couldn’t previously get, a new nationwide survey indicates.

And consumers are broadly satisfied with the new coverage, despite cost challenges and an ongoing Republican campaign to discredit the law.

Overall, 82 percent of American adults enrolled in private or government coverage through the health law said they were “somewhat” or “very” satisfied, according to the report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund.

“If the fundamental purpose of health insurance is to provide people with adequate access to needed health care, then it would seem that, on balance, the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansions are working well for most of the people who have enrolled in them,” the report concluded.

The findings paralleled a recent nationwide survey by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which found that two-thirds of people in a marketplace plan created through the law rated their coverage “excellent” or “good.”

Unlike the new report, the Kaiser survey did not include people newly enrolled in Medicaid through the federal health law, which is often called Obamacare.

New Medicaid enrollees are even happier with their health coverage than Americans in commercial health plans purchased through the marketplaces, with 88 percent reporting they are somewhat or very satisfied, the Commonwealth Fund found.

Americans with employer-provided health plans — which have lower premiums and deductibles than many marketplace plans — are the happiest, with 90 percent reporting satisfaction with their coverage.

The high marks are not universal, cautioned fund vice president Sara Collins, the report’s lead author.

Some consumers who had coverage before the health law was implemented have seen their premiums and deductibles increase as insurers have absorbed millions of new consumers, many of whom could not obtain health insurance previously because they had a pre-existing medical condition.

But the law remains a political hot button, with Republican congressional leaders and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump promising full repeal.

At the same time, many insurers are seeking significant premium increases next year, in part because enrollees in marketplace plans are sicker and more expensive than they anticipated.