Those polled were asked to evaluate a series of issues and rate them from "very easy" to "very hard" to understand. PPACA emerged as the single most difficult issue to understand of 10 listed issues by the pollsters.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) said PPACA is difficult to understand, while 25 percent said they understood the law pretty well. (Just 5 percent said the law was "very easy" to understand.)

Here's how those surveyed ranked other political issues and how well they understood them (Percentages don't equal 100 because a few were undecided):

National Security Council's data collection programs

Easy: 26 percent

Hard: 70 percent

Society Security's long-term financial challenges

Easy: 37 percent

Hard: 60 percent

Planning for retirement

Easy: 50 percent

Hard: 48 percent

Medical tests and clinic appointments recommended for your age

Easy: 71 percent

Hard: 27 percent

Despite their difficulties cutting through the fog of issues like health care reform and the NSA, most respondents said overall they kept on top of the news and understood most of it. Seven in 10 said they thought it was easy to keep informed on public issues. But that commitment to keeping informed has eroded over the years, AP said. Comparing results from February 1984 to the latest information, it found:

• When asked if they felt it was "a very important obligation" to keep up with the news, 56 percent said "yes" in 1984, compared to 37 percent today.
• When asked if keeping informed was "an obligation that a citizen owes to the country," more than three times as many felt such an obligation 30 years ago compared to today.

Only two percent of those polled today said everyday life has gotten "much less complicated" over the past decade.