Interest in the health care reform debate has remained extremely high throughout the summer, and more than nine-in-ten Americans say the issue is important to them. Still, despite the public focus on health care news, two-thirds continue to say the issue is hard to understand.

With Congress returning from its August recess, more than half of Americans (56%) say they plan to watch President Obama’s prime-time speech to lawmakers Wednesday night on health care. More Democrats (72%) say they plan to watch than Republicans (41%) or independents (52%).

According to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted September 3-6 among 1,005 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, four-in-ten Americans overall say they followed the health care debate very closely last week. About three-in-ten (29%) say they followed the health care debate more closely than any other story.

More than seven-in-ten (73%) Americans say the health care debate affects them personally, down slightly from the 78% that said the same in mid-July. Nearly all Americans (93%) view the issue as important, about the same as the 95% that said the issue was important in July. More than seven-in-ten (72%) say the issue is interesting, matching the proportion in the earlier survey.

Still, interest and media coverage notwithstanding, 67% say the health care debate remains hard to understand. That’s about the same as the 63% that said the issue was hard to understand in mid-July.