Thursday, February 26, 2009

KFF Survey on Public Opinion 

By Greg Scandlen

Filed As:  Health Care

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released a new survey. It finds that people are having a hard time paying their medical bills. It doesn’t mention that they are also having a hard time paying their bills for food, housing, transportation, education, or any of the other necessities of life. Once you get past the headlines, some interesting things crop up. For instance—

The number of people reporting problems in paying health care bills has actually dropped from last October (22% today, 32% in October, 2008).

The care they are skipping is mostly non-essential. 35% are using home remedies or OTC drugs, 34% are skipping dental care or “regular checkups,” 27% postponed getting a health care service they needed, and so on. In fact, people are less likely to do things they shouldn’t do anyway, like going to a doctor when they have a cold or the stomach flu or having a yearly physical exam. 6% said they postponed an outpatient surgical procedure and 5% postponed an inpatient stay, but the survey doesn’t mention if these were elective procedures.

The survey finds that “health care reform” is the public’s fourth most important priority, after fixing the economy, reforming entitlements, and fighting terrorism. But people are divided on what they mean by “health care reform” with equal numbers saying either it means lowering costs or it means helping the uninsured.

Substantial majorities think “health care reform” should be accomplished without spending any new money or changing their own arrangements.

Currently, 72% of the public expressed confidence in President Obama to do the right thing in health care. 60% had confidence in doctor’s organizations, 57% in Congressional Democrats, 57% in AARP, and 48% in small business groups. Only 40% have confidence in Labor, 38% in Congressional Republicans, 27% in the health care industry, and 25% in “major corporations.”

• posted by Greg Scandlen
• 8:32 am
• 0 comment