Nearly half of uninsured don't know where to go for ACA info

Nearly half of uninsured Americans don't know where to get information on healthcare, USA Today reports.

The survey, conducted by Bankrate.com, surveyed a representative sample of 1,001 people about their knowledge and opinions on healthcare reform shortly after the end of the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling standoff, according to the article.

Of those polled, only 9 percent said the Affordable Care Act has improved their health insurance situation in the past year. Thirty-eight percent of the uninsured said their feelings on the law are more negative than they were a year before, while 47 percent said they don't know where to go to get further information on healthcare reform. About 15 percent of the country's population is uninsured.

"It is discouraging that there is so much pessimism," Doug Whiteman, an insurance analyst for Bankrate.com  told USA Today. "The law is over three years old and so many people aren't getting the information."

However, 51 percent of Americans and 64 percent of the uninsured say they are more curious about healthcare reform, the article adds. "There has been a lot of confusion and there has been a lot of misinformation," Whiteman said. "People have been more curious, they just don't know where to turn for information."

Finding information about the law and the changes it makes are much easier in states that have set up their own insurance marketplaces and have health exchange navigators, but it's much harder in states like Florida, where navigators aren't available, Eric Johnson, the Norman Eig chair of business at Columbia University, told USA Today. "The federal exchange has had its problems," Johnson said. "A thing that is lost is the state exchanges have been doing quite well."

A March survey found that 57 percent of Americans overall and two-thirds of uninsured adults did not know how healthcare reform would affect them, with over half of Americans believing the law implements nationalized healthcare, FierceHealthcare previously reported.

To learn more:
- here's the USA Today article