Most Americans Worried Obamacare Exchanges Will Fail Again

NEW YORK, Aug. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans (56%) are not confident that the Obamacare health exchanges will operate smoothly during this fall's open enrollment period, according to a new Bankrate.com RATE report. Thirty-two percent are "not at all confident" (the most common response) and another 24% are "not too confident."

Fewer than two in five people are confident in the technical capabilities of the exchanges (11% are very confident and 28% are somewhat confident). "This demonstrates the long shadow cast by the bungled rollout of the exchanges last year," according to Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman.

Americans also fear much higher prices for health plans during the upcoming enrollment season; 46% say this could be a major problem. Only one in 12 Americans report lower monthly health care spending now than a year ago (versus almost half who report higher spending).

"The Obama Administration is still having trouble getting Americans to believe in affordable health care, despite the Department of Health and Human Services' recent report that nearly half the people buying subsidized plans on HealthCare.gov are paying $50 a month or less for their health plans," Whiteman added.

Thirty-seven percent of Americans say they feel "more negative" now than they did a year ago about the Affordable Care Act's impact on their own health care, more than twice as many as the 16% who feel "more positive." The negative sentiment is up nine percentage points from August 2013.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/health-insurance-survey-opinions-on-obamacare.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,002 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (502) and cell phone (500, including 270 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from July 17-20, 2014. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com and InsuranceQuotes.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Caring.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Caroline Farhat
Publicist, Bankrate, Inc.
caroline.farhat@bankrate.com
(917) 368-8638

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SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.