A national survey of adults over the age of 65 conducted by Harris Interactive for the National Council on Aging found that most seniors are ill-informed or unaware of important portions of healthcare reform, including how it affects their own Medicare coverage.
In response, the NCOA has launched the "Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform" campaign, aimed at providing older Americans with information about the new law.
"Unfortunately, this finding comes as no surprise," said James Firman, president and CEO of the NCOA. "Everywhere I go, seniors tell me that what they really want is information they can understand and rely on, from an organization they trust, whose only agenda is helping them get the facts. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. NCOA is proud to launch our 'Straight Talk' campaign to continue to meet this need among the nation's millions of older adults and their families and caregivers."
The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive and supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies, shows widespread confusion about healthcare reform, even on the issues that most directly affect seniors. For example, only 22 percent of seniors polled know the new law will not cut their basic Medicare benefits, compared with 42 percent who thought it will cut them and 37 percent who said they don't know if they will lose benefits.
In addition, only 14 percent say the new law is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to reduce the budget deficit, while 49 percent believe the law will increase the deficit.
The poll focused on what the NCOA identified as 12 points of reform that all seniors should know. None of the 636 who responded knew the correct answers to all the questions.
"Seniors are certainly confused about the Affordable Care Act, but interestingly, many of them also overestimated their own degree of knowledge," said David Krane of Harris Interactive. "Those who said they were 'very familiar' or 'familiar' with the law only fared somewhat better than those who self-identified as 'not familiar.' In the 'very familiar' and 'familiar' categories, 65 percent got less than half the answers right, compared with 85 percent of the people who self-identified as 'not familiar.'"
The NCOA will continue its campaign through the fall with town hall meetings and educational events and is making health reform educational materials available on its Web site. There, seniors can take an interactive "Straight Talk" quiz to test their knowledge of the law and learn more about it and find detailed poll results. Aging service professionals will find webinars online to prepare them to give "Straight Talk" presentations in their own communities.
"The health reform debate was long and complicated and often dominated by political spin that confused seniors," said Firman. "NCOA is committed to helping seniors get the key facts and information they need to make smart, informed decisions about their own healthcare. The fact that this poll revealed that so many people are misinformed or don't know much about the new law means we have our work cut out for us with the 'Straight Talk for Seniors on Health Reform' campaign."