Last week we introduced a new way to measure public opinion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the RAND Health Reform Opinion Study (RHROS). The RHROS allows us to observe true changes in opinion by surveying the same people over time. Here, in our first weekly blog post, we present the latest data.
Negative opinion about the ACA seems to be stabilizing, while positive opinion is increasing. Those undecided about the ACA are decreasing.
As for change in opinion, the significant shifts we observed in the first month of our survey seem to be stabilizing. From September to the end of November, 25 percent of individuals changed their opinion. In December, however, this dropped to approximately 15 percent. From the third week of November to the third week of December, 2.2 percent switched their opinions from positive to negative, down from 5.2 percent among the same individuals from the end of September to the third week in November.
Check back each week for updated data. We'll also provide more detailed analysis about RHROS results once per month.
Katherine Carman is an economist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and is principal investigator for the RAND Health Reform Opinion Study.
Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
