Tabulation and analysis by Peter D. Hart Research Associates
AFL-CIO
Over a period of just seven weeks, from Jan. 14-March 3, a total of 26,419 people took the online 2008 Health Care for America Survey sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America. Most are insured and employed. Most are college graduates. More than half are union members.
These are the people, it would seem, most likely to have positive experiences with America’s health care system. Instead, their responses tell a sobering story about the breadth of the problems with health care in America. They say our system has fundamental problems that must be fixed.
* The demand for change in today’s health care system is based primarily on deep concerns about costs.
* The failures of America’s health care system, the survey reveals, are a significant factor in broader economic problems facing working families today.
* Having insurance coverage is not insulating families from problems, concerns and dissatisfaction with today’s health care system.
* But people who lack insurance–and those who have children younger than 18 who are not covered–report particularly troubling problems getting the care they need because of cost.
* More than half of survey takers say their health insurance does not cover all the care they need at a price they can afford.
* Medicare is not a shield against unaffordable prescription drug prices.
* Concerns about today’s health care system span all ages, races, education levels and affect the insured as well as the uninsured.
http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/upload/healthcaresurvey_report.pdf
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
This twenty-eight page reports provides statistical data in tables and graphs that demonstrate the level of dissatisfaction with our health care system. Two of the more revealing numbers are that “ninety-five percent say they are somewhat or very concerned about being able to afford health insurance in the coming years,” and “ninety-five percent of respondents say America’s health care system needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt.”
If the politicians can’t hear this call for action, they must be deaf.