Will confusion about ACA stop people from logging on to healthcare exchanges?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare insurance exchanges open Oct. 1, and many are speculating how effective the marketing push has been on educating the 48 million Americans without healthcare insurance on the benefits of the indivual mandate.

Last-minute polls about the opening of the healthcare exchanges show that the public is still confused by mixed messages about the ACA.

Nearly 70% of uninsured adults and more than half of insured adults polled by the Kaiser Health Foundation said that they didn’t have enough information about the healthcare exchanges to make a decision for themselfves and their families.

The Kaiser poll also found that many are confused by media reports about the politics and real benefits of ACA’s mandated healthcare provision. More than half (53%) of respondents don’t trust any media sources that report on the ACA, and feel the bipartisan bickering about the law is more of a media focus than how it would affect people.

Though many seem to be unclear about how ACA’s healthcare insurance exchanges will affect them, many are still going to sign up between October and December. Though only 37% of respondents to a Gallup poll said that they were familiar with the healthcare exchanges, 65% said they would rather get the insurance than pay a fine. According to Gallup, awareness about the individual mandate has risen among the uninsured. Now 69% of uninsured people polled are aware of the individual mandate now versus only 56% in June.

President Barack Obama’s administration deployed a marketing campaign this summer across television, the Internet, and social media in efforts to educate the uninsured about the ACA. Efforts from the Obama camp, coupled with state-funded advertising campaigns cost about $684 million, according to the Associated Press.