Tweets posted in October show declining public sentiment towards the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to an analysis from the California Healthcare Foundation.
Using Topsy's sentiment scores, tweets about PPACA were assigned a score between 0 (very negative) and 100 (very positive), with 50 representing neutrality. The analysis reveals tweets containing a link to Healthcare.gov before its launch were generally positive with an average Topsy score of 74. By Oct. 5 the average sentiment score had dropped to 29.
A spike in positive sentiment occurred right before President Barack Obama's Oct. 20 speech on the reform law. However, sentiment dropped significantly directly afterward.
Additionally, while sentiment about the federally-run site Healthcare.gov has been negative throughout the month, the state-run exchange sites have enjoyed an average sentiment score of 70 since Oct. 1.
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