24 August 2010 / , CHICAGO
Julia Wood, a 51-year-old mother of 12 from Chicago’s East side, has some health insurance through a state program -- but is so worried she may lose it she asked us not to give her real name.
Wood’s husband, a plumbing contractor, watched his business dry up in 2008 with the mortgage crisis. “The economy hit us,” said Wood in an interview at the not-for-profit Chicago Family Health Center. Like millions of Americans, she is waiting for healthcare reform legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama in March to take effect. But like millions of Americans, she is not sure what it will do for her. A Thomson Reuters poll of consumer confidence released on Monday shows Americans’ confidence in their ability to pay for and access healthcare has fallen by 5 percent since December 2009. The Thomson Reuters Consumer Healthcare Sentiment Index, based on a monthly survey of 3,000 consumers, asks if they have had trouble paying for or had to postpone care in the three months prior. And it asks if they expect to in the coming three months. On every survey question, responses were more pessimistic in July than they were in December. That’s a cause for concern to healthcare providers and policymakers,” Gary Pickens, chief research officer at Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement. Pickens has seen a gradual eroding of confidence since December, despite a few notable peaks, such as in April, the month after Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. “I doubt the average person really knows what has been implemented,” he said. “They just know there is a lot of talk and there has been a lot of negative publicity.”
