NEW YORK TIMES Editorial: …The survey, sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, a research group that tracks health care reform, conducted phone interviews with some 4,400 working-age adults around the country from April 9 to June 2, shortly after the first open enrollment period ended. It found that 78 percent of the newly insured were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their new insurance. That included 73 percent of those who bought private health plans and 84 percent who signed up for Medicaid.
It seems that once enrolled, whatever uncertainties or ideological opposition people might have to health reform largely melts away. Of the Democrats, 85 percent were happy with the new insurance, as were 74 percent of Republicans. By the beginning of June, 60 percent of the adults with new coverage said they had used their plans to go to a doctor or hospital or fill a prescription, and 62 percent of that group said they would not have been able to afford care before getting this new coverage. More than half of the adults said their plan included all or some of the doctors they wanted. Only 5 percent said none of their preferred doctors were included in their plans.
Most of the newly insured people had no trouble finding a primary care doctor, and most waited less than two weeks for an appointment. Whether that will hold true when millions more patients flood into the market remains to be seen… (more)
