美国国家公共电台 NPR We Asked People What They Know About Obamacare. See If You Know The Answers

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

The Senate overnight voted to approve a budget resolution which amounts to the first step of a repeal¹ of the Affordable² Care Act, also known as Obamacare. There's a long, long, long way to go. Republicans and Democrats³ have yet to agree on a replacement⁴. And this huge national debate is happening amid a cloud of misinformation. That's according to a new NPR Ipsos poll. They asked what people know about the law and found that many of us are misinformed. Joining us this morning is NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak to talk about the survey's findings. Hi, Alison.

ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE⁵: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: So what do we think we know that we don't know?

KODJAK: Well, you know, there's just a lot of information that people are slightly or very much misinformed about. The poll is designed to gauge⁶ what people know about basic facts. And the biggest surprise, I think, was that more - about half the people - a little bit more - don't even know that the Affordable Care Act has extended insurance to millions of people who didn't have it anymore. The insurance rate - I mean, the rate of uninsured people has gone down to 9 percent which is the lowest in the nation's history, sort of the one basic piece of information that the government probably - the Obama administration probably wants out there and half the people in the country don't know that that's happened.

INSKEEP: I've wondered if this is one of the disadvantages of this law from the beginning. I mean, if you think about Social Security or Medicare, we may be confused about some of it, but we basically get what it is. This is a complicated law, and peace - people from the very beginning didn't basically get what it was.

KODJAK: That's true. And it was, you know, brought in under a huge amount of controversy⁷. People knew that they were going to be, quote, "forced to buy insurance." And then when the law...

INSKEEP: Which is actually true. That part is true, yeah.

KODJAK: It is true. It is true. But what was lost in a lot of the debate was the extension of Medicaid to a lot of people who get Medicaid now who weren't eligible⁸ before, so low-income people now are insured who weren't before. And what was lost was some of the ways that the government helps people get insurance. And this law really only applies to a small portion of the population, now 10 million people - but this part of the law.

So most of the people who are thinking about it and talking about it and, perhaps, voting on it, it doesn't affect them directly. Also, the effects of the law happened years after the debate happened. So all this negative info was in the air already, and that sticks with people. I talked to a lot of experts in communication. They say once you get a first impression that's bad, it's really hard to make it good again.

INSKEEP: With that said, is there something real about people's concerns here? They know what they pay for insurance. They know whether they like their insurance or they don't like their insurance, and they're basically expressing a concern. Is that true?

KODJAK: Yes. That's absolutely true. And one of the big concerns is that over time, people who bought insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges saw the top-line rates for the insurance go up, and that meant people who don't - aren't eligible for subsidies⁹ saw their prices shoot way up. And at the same time generally, some of the insurance benefits on the market overall also were cut back and prices went up, so that people see their insurance rates go up anywhere and they blame it on the Affordable Care Act.

INSKEEP: So the president-elect has made a big promise here along with Republicans in Congress - going to replace it with something that is better and yet cheaper. What's the status of the repeal and the talk at least of replacement?

KODJAK: Well, as you said at the beginning, they're working on the repeal. They're talking about replacement. There's been no replacement plan proposed yet. And so it's unclear what's going to come in in the place of this law.

INSKEEP: And so that's - what? - weeks of debate, months of debate, who knows how much debate?

KODJAK: It looks like it's going to be at least weeks of debate because in the last few days, the Congress has said they want to replace it at the same time as they repeal it. So they're going to have to come up with that plan.

INSKEEP: Well, we'll see what happens. That's NPR's Alison Kodjak. Thanks very much for coming by.

KODJAK: Thanks for having me, Steve.

1 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

2 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

7 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

8 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

9 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》