Some Panic, Other Shrug at Prospect of Losing Obamacare: 80% Are Somewhat or Very Satisfied with Coverage According to Commonwealth Fund Survey

Denise Martinez Gascoigne, 49, and her husband, Paul Gascoigne, 49, are paying $1,130 in premiums each month for a health plan they say they can't afford to use.

"Very disappointed and distraught" over the results; photograph courtesy of Denise Gascoigne

The 20 million Americans who have gained health coverage under the Affordable Care Act don't yet know exactly how the presidency of Donald Trump will change their lives — and reactions to that uncertainty range from anxiety to apathy.

"My phone is ringing off the hook," said Billy Bradford, an insurance broker in Montgomery, Ala. "People are just in panic mode here."

One call came from an older couple who had recently retired. Right now, the couple pays $57 per month for their insurance plan; without the subsidy they receive through the health law, the cost will shoot up to $2,000 a month. "They called me in tears afraid. They would not be hired back at their old jobs and are in poor health," said Bradford.

But another set of consumers — who perhaps are healthier or feel like they are paying too much for too little coverage — may welcome a change. Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Friday that the law would be "repealed and replaced or amended."

On Sunday, Trump was upbeat but vague about what that change might be, telling 60 Minutes: "It'll be great health care for much less money. So it'll be better health care, much better, for less money."

It’s been well-documented that the public remains deeply divided over the law, which has been controversial since it passed in 2010. A recent Gallup poll found that 51 percent of respondents are in favor of repealing Obamacare, while 45 percent oppose repealing it. But of those Americans actually enrolled in either marketplace coverage or expanded Medicaid, about 80 percent say they are somewhat or very satisfied with the coverage, according to a survey by the Commonwealth Fund.

Denise Martinez Gascoigne, 49, in Greenland, N.H., has been paying $1,130 in premiums each month for insurance for her family of four that she purchases through the state's exchange. Their deductible is $5,000 per person. Gascoigne and her husband are both self-employed and earn too much money to qualify for a subsidy.

"It's so ridiculous that we pay over $1,100 a month, and we're still left footing the bill for whatever prescription or procedure we might need in addition to the health insurance," she said. "We just don't go to the doctor." Her premium is set to increase to nearly $1,330 in 2017.

Gascoigne, who is a Democrat, is "very disappointed and distraught" over the results of the election and supports a single-payer health system. Nonetheless, she said, she’s "somewhat indifferent" to the impending changes to the Affordable Care Act.