It should come as no surprise that implementation of the Affordable Care Act has sparked widespread confusion by the public, Professor Robert Field said during an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio that aired on June 25.

“Health care is incredibly complicated. Insurance is incredibly complicated,” Field said, adding that a massive federal law that seeks to provide affordable insurance coverage through private carriers is necessarily not simple. 

With the Obama Administration poised to roll out the nationwide Health Insurance Marketplace in October, Field said the widely misunderstood law will affect relatively few people, since the law will not alter employer-based plans that cover most Americans.

The administration’s plan to partner with professional sports leagues to raise awareness of the insurance exchanges echoes the approach used to in Massachusetts to promote then-Gov. Mitt Romney’s health reforms, Field told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an article published June 25.

Implementation of the law will reduce the number of uninsured by half, enabling 25 million or more people to receive subsidized health care insurance, Field said on the radio program.

Still, low-income individuals may be ineligible for coverage if live in states that are refusing to expand Medicaid coverage, Field said. 

Program host Kathleen Dunn interviewed both Field and Huffington Post health reporter Jeffrey Young. 

Continued controversy over Obamacare is consistent with the sharp debate over the Medicare program when it was first enacted, Field said, noting that consumer-friendly information about health care exchanges is available through the Philadelphia Inquirer.