A significant majority of Americans who secured their health insurance through Obamacare this year report being satisfied with their care and coverage, according to a new poll.
The
Gallup poll conducted Oct. 22-Nov. 12 of 407 beneficiaries found that more than seven in 10 rate the quality of their healthcare and their healthcare coverage as "excellent" or "good," levels that are comparable to how other Americans feel about their health coverage.
Nineteen percent of those surveyed said they felt their coverage was "fair," while another 9 percent rated it "poor."
The survey also found that those who rate the coverage and quality of their healthcare positively were more satisfied than the average insured American with the cost of their insurance cover.
Specifically, 75 percent said they were satisfied with the cost of their Obamacare policy, compared to 61 percent who have their insurance coverage through the consumer market.
A majority, or 68 percent, who received insurance through the healthcare exchanges said they plan to renew their policy, and an additional 7 percent said they plan to look for a new policy through the exchanges.
"As the healthcare exchanges reopen on Nov. 15, these data suggest that the currently uninsured will mostly be pleased with the outcome if they opt to use the exchanges to obtain insurance on this second go-around," Gallup said in a statement.
Meanwhile, speculation is mounting about how Obamacare's website, HealthCare.gov, will perform when it opens for business on Saturday following a year of work by technology specialists after its disastrous rollout.
While the government has been careful to
downplay expectations for the volume of sign-ups, it gave an upbeat message about the website's functionality for the second open enrollment period.
"We're very confident we're going to be in good shape beginning Saturday," Kevin Counihan, the head of HealthCare.gov, told
CBS News.
"This is not last year. This is not last year," he said.
The repairs to the website, which have
cost an estimated $175 million, were overseen by Jeff Zients, the management consultant who was named as the point person on the project by the president.
Counihan said extensive end-to-end testing was performed to ensure functionality.
"We've kicked the tires on this system both internally and externally to see that it works and that it's stable."
He added that the application process had been streamlined to make enrollment easier compared to last year.
"There are 16 screen shots to go through the application … compared to 76 from a year ago," he told CBS News.
His assurances, however, come on the heels of a report that there has been
last-minute scrambling behind the scenes to test the system, with elaborate contingency plans set up that would kick-in if the site experiences problems.
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