Washington, April 29: Despite the passage of a sprawling healthcare bill, the American public is steadily losing confidence in receiving healthcare, survey suggests.
The Thomson Reuters Consumer Healthcare Sentiment Index revealed on Wednesday that confidence lost three percentage points from a baseline of 100 in December to 97 in March.
“Strikingly, Americans expect the situation to worsen significantly in the next three months,” said Gary Pickens, chief research officer at Thomson Reuters.
“The thing I thought was interesting was … the level of sentiment about future expectations worsened more. The future outlook seems to be causing the people we interviewed angst.”
More people said in March that they had lost or reduced their health insurance coverage over the past three months.
“I think it may have something to do with the reform legislation,” Pickens told Reuters via phone. “Getting legislation through hasn’t reassured Americans,” he added. “People are being unclear about what it means for them.”
Last month, President Barack Obama signed into law a health care reform act that would provide coverage to over 30 million Americans who are currently uninsured.
The US government claims the bill makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for healthcare in history.
——-Agencies