The majority of Americans rate the quality of healthcare in the U.S. the same today as they did in 2013, before the Affordable Care Act came into effect, according to a recent Gallup poll.
More than half (53 percent) of Americans said healthcare today is of "excellent" or "good" quality. While these rates are similar to findings from Gallup's poll in 2013, they are down from more positive ratings from 2008 to 2012, where 57 percent to 62 percent of respondents gave an "excellent" or "good" rating.
After President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Americans rated healthcare in the U.S. more favorably than they had from 2005 to 2007. The percentage of people who gave healthcare a high rating reached a high of 62 percent in 2010 and again in 2012, just after President Obama was reelected. According to Gallup, those ratings were likely due to optimism about his plan to reform healthcare with the passage of the ACA. However, since the ACA came into effect, no more than 54 percent of Americans have given the nation's healthcare an "excellent" or "good" rating.
The Gallup poll also found Americans rate U.S. healthcare coverage substantially less positively than they do healthcare quality. The greatest percentage of high ratings for healthcare coverage occurred in 2012 with 41 percent, but then dropped in 2013 to 32 percent. In 2015, 33 percent gave U.S. healthcare coverage an "excellent" or "good" rating.
Americans are least satisfied with healthcare costs, according to the poll, with just 21 percent of patients saying they are satisfied. The highest level of satisfaction was reported in 2001, when 28 percent of Americans indicated they were satisfied with healthcare prices.