Here goes another Republican myth about Obamacare up in flames. It turns out, according to a
JD Powers and Associates survey, customer satisfaction with Obamacare is higher than with employer-based insurance. A lot higher. Why?
Choice, primarily.
People who had coverage through Obamacare had an average satisfaction score of 696 (out of 1,000) in 2014, thinking back to their last year of coverage. During that same year, people in mostly employer-based plans had a satisfaction rating of 679—17 points lower. […]
So why would these plans score higher? The J.D. Power survey suggests that there's another variable enrollees think a lot about: choice. Their research also shows that people with employer-sponsored coverage who have "multiple plan options" have the exact same satisfaction rating as the people on Obamacare.
And this might actually circle back to the cost issue. People shopping on Obamacare have the option to decide whether they want a plan with a high premium or a low one. Shoppers have typically gravitated toward the lower-cost premium. The average monthly premium on Healthcare.gov is $374. For people getting coverage at work, the average premium is $464.
People feel like they're getting a pretty good deal—and they have the opportunity to comparison shop for that deal. In most states, they had an even wider range of choices for 2015 because
more companies joined the exchanges when they saw the successful first year.
That's twofold evidence of how the private insurance side of Obamacare is working: more insurers and happier customers. That is, unless the Supreme Court decides to gut it all by taking subsidies away from people buying on the federal exchange. At that point, all those satisfied customers are going to be looking for someone to blame and their nearest Republican elected official likely will be it.