Public conficence in health care system falls after Obamacare enacted

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans are steadily losing confidence in their ability to get healthcare and pay for it, despite the passage of healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey published on Wednesday.

The Thomson Reuters Consumer Healthcare Sentiment Index found that confidence lost three percentage points from a baseline of 100 in December to 97 in March.

"Strikingly, Americans expect the situation to worsen significantly in the next three months," said Gary Pickens, chief research officer at Thomson Reuters.

"The thing I thought was interesting was ... the level of sentiment about future expectations worsened more. The future outlook seems to be causing the people we interviewed angst."

Thomson Reuters interviews more than 100,000 U.S. households annually via telephone surveys about healthcare behaviors, attitudes and utilization. This particular index is based in a subset of 3,000 people, representative of the nation as a whole, interviewed every month.

The survey, published at http://healthcarescience.thomsonreuters.com/indexes/, finds a steady erosion in confidence.

"I think it may have something to do with the reform legislation," Pickens said in a telephone interview. "Getting legislation through hasn't reassured Americans," he added. "People are being unclear about what it means for them."