When many Americans don't really know what this whole health care thing is about, it's not exactly shocking that foreigners know still less about it and merely have heard something vague about America moving in the right direction (which, I agree, is debatable, but the amount of insured is supposed to drop by a significant number at least, we'll see if that actually happens).

At the risk of hijacking your thread (so let me take a leaf from your book and announce beforehand I'll refuse to engage in discussion on the topic ), there was an article on our newspaper's website just today that illustrated how sometimes foreign media can be really, really off on American news. The article was about the comments made by Miss America Rima Fakih on the topic of the Ground Zero mosque. Literal translation of the opening paragraph:

"Miss USA Rima Fakih, a practicing Muslim, spoke out in a radio interview against president Barack Obama's plans of building a mosque at Ground Zero."

I kid you not. That's what it says. (And no, it's not Miss Fakih who is the clueless one, I checked the American reporting on the matter.) Of course it's not representative - must be a brain fart by some lower-ranking journalist, the professionals aren't quite that clueless - but I think the point is clear: people who rely exclusively on European news sources for their news about America will get an incomplete and sometimes seriously inaccurate view of things.