One-third of Americans don't appear to know Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are the same thing

A sizable chunk of the American public has some confusion about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare.

Actually, they might not know it as Obamacare.

According to a Morning Consult poll published in The New York Times, just more than one out of every three Americans surveyed did not realize that Obamacare and the ACA are the same thing.

Overall, 17% incorrectly thought they were two different policies, according to the poll, while 18% did not know if they were the same or different.

The information gap also showed up when people were asked about their approval of the law. When asked if they approved or disapproved of Obamacare, Americans were split, as 45% approved and 46% disapproved.

When asked, however if they supported the Affordable Care Act, 44% of people approved while just 40% disapproved.

Knowledge about the particulars of the a potential repeal of the law was also lacking - 39% of people surveyed either did not know or incorrectly stated that Medicaid subsidies would not go away if Obamacare is repealed.

According to the post from Kyle Dropp of Morning Consult and Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth University, the knowledge gap on Medicaid credits were split on a partisan line.

More than half (53%) of Republicans were unsure of responded incorrectly when asked about the impact of repeal on Medicaid subsides. Only 21% of Democrats either didn't know or incorrectly answered the Medicaid subsidies question.

The split comes as Republicans are taking steps to repeal the ACA in Congress while also attempting to draft and coalesce around a replacement. Recently, however, Republicans have shifted their tone regarding the ACA, choosing to call their plan a "repair" of the law rather than a "repeal."

At the same time, polls have showed the ACA's popularity slowly climbing as Democrats push the more popular aspects of the law, such as the more than 20 million people that have been covered through its various provisions.

The poll was conducted by Morning Consult, surveying 1,890 Americans on January 25 and 26 online with a margin of error of 2 percentage points in either direction.