Attitudes toward the United States' Health Care System
Friends of PNHP: Please don't miss the special message at the end of
today's quote.
Harris Interactive
Volume 2, Issue 17
August 21, 2002
Attitudes toward the United States' Health Care System: Long-Term Trends
Views of the public, employers, physicians, health plan managers are closer
now than at any time in the past
In the more than twenty years since Harris Interactive (or Louis Harris &
Associates, as it was then) first asked the American people what they
thought of the nation's health care system, there have been many changes,
both up and down. And when we have asked the same questions of other groups
(physicians, employers, hospital managers and health plan managers), we have
usually found quite big differences among the views of those different
groups. This year these differences have narrowed; the level of support for
radical change is somewhat similar in all these groups.
The Big Picture
While legislators in Washington are still deeply scarred by the 1994 debate
and the defeat of the Clinton health care reform proposal, it is clear that
only very small minorities of any of the five groups' surveyed hold a good
opinion of the health care system as it is now. Those who believe that "on
the whole the health care system works pretty well and only minor changes
are necessary" include only 19% of physicians and smaller percentages of all
other groups surveyed.
If our survey data were to serve as our only guide, there are several other
reasons why one might expect a big push for health care reform. Employers
are more hostile toward the system now than they were in any of our previous
surveys. So are health plan managers. While physicians' attitudes are a
little bit less negative than they were two years ago, they are more
negative than they were at any time between 1984 and 1997.
The public also has a considerable appetite for health care reform, even if
the radical change score is lower than it was in some previous years,
particularly in the early 1990s. But only 17% of the public thinks that "the
system works pretty well and only minor changes are necessary." Almost twice
as many (31%) think that "we need to completely rebuild the system," with
almost everyone else (49%) thinking that "fundamental changes are needed."
Overall, therefore, a stronger consensus for radical reform is building.
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/healthnews/HI_HealthCareNe
ws2002Vol2_Iss17.pdf
Comment: Over four-fifths of physicians, employers, hospital managers,
health plan managers, and the public now all agree that either "fundamental
changes are needed" in our health care system or "that we need to completely
rebuild it." Less than one-fifth believe that "only minor changes are
necessary." The most dramatic change is that "doctors became much more
negative in 1999 and have remained more negative ever since."
Physicians can now do something about it. We have launched a campaign to
invite every physician and medical student in the United States to endorse a
proposal for national health insurance, a proposal that would eliminate
wasteful administrative excesses and assure that health care dollars are
directed more equitably to the health care delivery system. The proposal and
the endorsement form can be accessed at:
http://www.physiciansproposal.org/
The form also provides the option of joining Physicians for a National
Health Program and becoming an active part of the growing physician movement
demanding that we change our policies and priorities from those that are
directed to creating a friendly and profitable environment for health plans
to those that channel our health care resources directly to patient care...
all patients.
A printer friendly version of the full proposal is available at:
http://www.pnhp.org/pproposal.doc
Again, for the endorsement form:
http://www.physiciansproposal.org/
Special message to our friends who share our vision:
Please distribute this message to any physician or medical student whom you
believe is ready to take action to reform the flawed system of funding
health care in the United States. Refer them to these websites, or print out
the proposal and endorsement form and distribute copies, as appropriate. The
crescendo of the physicians' voices must be heard.