Two-Thirds of Americans Okay With Added Obamacare Fees

NEW YORK, April 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly two-thirds (68%) of Americans are okay with a business adding a nominal surcharge to each bill in order to help pay for employees' health insurance, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Support for this practice is highest among 18-29 year olds (64%) and lowest among Americans ages 65 and older (39%).

"A few well-known local and national business leaders have floated the idea of adding a small surcharge to each bill in order to compensate for increasing health insurance costs," said Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman. "While most Americans may be able to swallow an extra 25 cents on their bill at their favorite restaurant, a sizable chunk (22%) said they would stop going to the business. I can only imagine this number increasing if businesses try to charge too much."

Overall, few Americans feel their health insurance situation has gotten better with the advent of Obamacare. In fact, only 13% of Americans say their health insurance situation has improved compared to one year ago. Americans reporting higher monthly healthcare spending outnumber those reporting lower spending by a ratio of greater than four-to-one.

Americans who want to repeal Obamacare edge out those who want to keep it in place by a slight margin (45% vs. 44%). Fifty-one percent of 50-64 year olds (more than any other age group) say they would keep Obamacare rather than repeal it. This is an 11-point increase from the last time Bankrate asked this question in December 2013.

"This shift in opinion among 50-64 year-olds can likely be attributed to the fact that Obamacare bars health insurance companies from denying coverage to customers with pre-existing health conditions. Since people in this age group are the ones most likely to experience discrimination, they really stand to benefit from this provision in the new law," said Whiteman.

These results comprise Bankrate.com's Health Insurance Pulse, a monthly survey that tracks how Americans are feeling about health care and their personal finances. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/health-insurance-poll-0414.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (500, including 277 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from April 17-20, 2014. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, our flagship website, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including CreditCards.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, InsuranceQuotes.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, Bankrate.com.cn, CreditCards.ca, NetQuote.com, and CD.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

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For more information:

Caroline Farhat
Publicist
Bankrate, Inc.
[email protected]
(917) 368-8638

SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.