The acrimonious politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, led to a government shutdown on October 1, 2013—the day the ACA’s health exchanges debuted. But [[Robert Blendon]], Richard L. Menschel Professor of Public Health and professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), said that, in the long term, the current policy debate won’t be what changes people’s opinion about the ACA.
“A year from now, it becomes like buying a consumer product: it’s real, it’s on the market,” Blendon said. “People’s opinions are… going to be shaped by what actually happens and what they see and hear from these plans.”
Three other HSPH experts were also quoted in the article: [[Benjamin Sommers]], assistant professor of health policy and economics; [[John McDonough]], director of the Center for Public Health Leadership; and [[Katherine Baicker]], professor of health economics.
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