As the Supreme Court prepares to hand down its decision on President Obama's Affordable Care Act, many Americans still don't know that much about the law.
According to a Pew Poll released yesterday, about a third of respondents admitted to not understanding the law all that well. Part of the problem is opponents have spent a fortune framing the debate. According to a report in the L.A. Times, groups opposing health care reform have outspent supporters three to one.
But that shouldn't take the blame away from the Obama Administration, which has had a difficult time getting past talk of the insurance mandate and playing up the parts that are popular with Americans, like allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health plans until 26 and banning insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. This point was summed up by Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska Senator who wants to return the Senate, in an interview with the New York Times Magazine. Kerrey told Matt Bai:
"I shouldn’t be the one explaining to Nebraskans what’s in the Affordable Care Act…What’s it been, two years? It’s a sign of a problem created not by me but by the man who’s the primary architect of the legislation. They just did a terrible job of explaining it.”