Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Ignorance is Bliss? 

Americans like other health systems, but don't know them

Filed As:  Health Care

The Harvard School of Public Health has a new poll out that underscores the huge partisan divide over health reform.

More than twice as many Republicans (68%) as Democrats (32%) believe that the U.S. health system is "the best in the world." Further, more than half of Democrats (56%) say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who advocates moving toward a system more like Canada's, France's, or Great Britain's. In contrast, only a fifth (19%) of Republicans say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate that advocates moving toward such systems.

Interestingly, even though many people want to import other countries' health systems, they don't know much about them: 53% of all of those responding to the survey, for example, say that they aren't sure how our system compares to France's, for example.

So it shows that people do think that the grass is greener. But maybe they need to learn a bit more about what it's really like living under those systems before they throw out the one health care system that is driving innovation in new medicines, new treatments, and new medical technologies, and that many people think is the best in the world.
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