Some of the numbers from this USA Today-Pew Poll are astonishing:

A new poll finds 53 percent of people disapprove of ObamaCare and President Obama's approach to healthcare policy, a record high on both questions. 

The  survey from USA Today and the Pew Research Center also found Republicans have gained a narrow but telling edge on healthcare issues generally. 

The poll revealed that 40 percent now prefer the GOP on healthcare compared to 39 percent who prefer Democrats, erasing a preference for Democrats that had stretched back more than 20 years.

 

The findings come just two weeks before ObamaCare's new insurance marketplaces open for enrollment. But that process, which is crucial to healthcare reform's success, could see trouble given ongoing confusion among key groups. 

About one-third (34 percent) reported that they do not understand how the healthcare law will work, a figure that has only slightly improved since the law's passage.

Meanwhile, nearly four in 10 of the uninsured do not realize they will be required to buy coverage or pay a fine starting next year.

This understanding is better among the general population, where seven in 10 grasp the so-called individual mandate, but worse among young people whose participation in the new exchanges is vital to ObamaCare's success.

Some have attributed the public's weak understanding of healthcare reform to Republicans' opposition to the law.

If those numbers are even close to being accurate, millions of Americans are going to be shocked when the IRS sends out the form after January 1 that requires the taxpayer to identify their insurance coverage or face a penalty.

The numbers also indicate that we are all in for sticker shock on health insurance premiums because not enough young, healthy people will sign up and offset the millions of sick Americans who will buy subsidized insurance on the exchanges.

And as far as GOP resistance to Obamacare being the reason the public doesn't understand the law - nice try, guys. The public is barely aware of what the GOP has been up to with regard to repealing Obamacare so how could the Republicans be at fault?

This is a matter of a highly complex, confusing, contradictory law that even its most vocal backers barely understand, and for which unintended consequences cannot be quantified. And we are supposed to expect large majorities of Americans to grasp its scope and meaning?

The train is heading around the bend and the engineer is asleep at the controls.