Expectations vary on Obamacare roll-out

July 07, 2013, 1:58 PM GMT+0

Expectations among the public for when Obamacare might be fully implemented range everywhere from now to never

The reforms to the American healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, reached another delay this past week when it was announced that one of the key provisions will be postponed. Employers will now have until 2015 to provide health insurance for their employees, at which point they will face a fine. Originally, they had to provide health insurance by the beginning of 2014.

New research from YouGov shows that Americans' expectations about the date of the full implementation of Obamacare stretch across a wide range.

Despite the announcement last week, 22% of Americans say they expect Obamacare to be fully implemented next year, while 20% say it will be fully implemented by the new on-time date of 2015. 13%, on the other hand, believe that the Obamacare reforms will be further postponed until after 2015 and 17% say that Obamacare will never be fully implemented. There was also a fair amount of uncertainty: 25% of respondents answered "not sure" and 3% incorrectly assumed that Obamacare had already been fully implemented.

Not unexpectedly, expectations differ by party. Democrats are more likely to predict an earlier start date while Republicans are more likely to say later or never.

27% of Democrats say the reforms will be fully implemented by next year and 28% say they will be implemented in 2015. Only 12% say they will be implemented after 2015 and 4% say never.

Among Republicans, on the other hand, 22% predict full implementation next year and 10% in 2015. 16% say it will be implemented after 2015 and most strikingly, 32% say Obamacare will never be fully implemented.

Although full implementation looks like it will not happen until at least 2015, other parts of Obamacare are still scheduled for 2014, including the requirement that individuals buy insurance and the creation of state based health exchanges.