It is amazing to me thatafter the massive media coverage of the bitter debate over healthreform this year, so many people remain clueless about what's inthe law congressional Democrats rammed through, and what thesechanges mean for them.

The average Joe and Jane could no doubt speak with much moreauthority about the latest legal mishaps involving Paris Hilton andLindsay Lohan than they could about the details of the mostimportant coverage they have (or, for tens of millions, don'thave)—health insurance.

Yet six months after President Barack Obama signed health reforminto law, more than half mistakenly believe the law will raisetaxes for most people this year. It won't—unless, of course, youare into indoor tanning (which could hike health insurance costsdown the road for skin cancer care), which did get tagged with anextra fee.

Way too many people also apparently believe Sarah Palin'snonsense about the establishment of “death panels” under“Obamacare,” in which “bureaucrats” will make life and deathdecisions over whether it is worth the money being spent to savesomeone's life. Just for the record, there are no such grimtribunals being formed under the new law.

This is all according to a poll taken recently by StanfordUniversity, working in conjunction with the Robert Wood JohnsonFoundation and the Associated Press.

People were given a true-or-false quiz on about 20 health reformtopics—some of which made it into the law and some of which didnot. To deepen our appreciation of the depth of misunderstandingout there, respondents were also asked how confident they wereabout their answers, so we could see if they were merely flipping acoin to decide how to answer.

The survey found that two out of three respondents wereuncertain about their responses on eight of the nine coreprovisions in the reform law, according to an Associated Pressstory.

In case people haven't heard, there were some significantdevelopments on the health insurance reform front last week—all tothe benefit of policyholders.

With newly sold and renewed plans, insurers can't set lifetimelimits on claims. They can no longer dump a policyholder whobecomes ill, and they are prohibited from excluding kids withpreexisting conditions. (And insurers wonder why they have a badreputation?)

In addition, dependents up to the age of 26 are now allowed toremain on their parents' coverage. Preventative care must beinsured without cost-sharing, and new processes have beenestablished to appeal claim decisions.

Will all these features add to the cost of health insurance? AsMs. Palin would no doubt quip, “You betcha!” However, who wouldargue against the value of such features? Especially since suchadditional coverage would only hike costs by the low single-digits,according to most independent studies—not the jolting double-digitincreases for health coverage we're hearing about in the media.

Hewitt Associates just reported that employers should brace foran average group health insurance hike of 9 percent for 2011—thehighest spike in five years. Employees will have to cough up anadditional 12 percent on average out of their own pockets.

Where do we go from here? I hear there were similar complaintsabout Social Security and Medicare when those two vital safety netprograms were launched. When the uninsured start getting coveragein 2014, perhaps that lucky bunch will defend “Obamacare” morevigorously.