STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY - HEALTH PULSE OF AMERICA - MAY 2003

Executive Summary

Health Care Access and Costs

Americans report a pervasive concern about the cost of health care. A majority are worried about how they would cope financially with a major illness. Health care is mentioned as often as cancer as one of the major health problems confronting Americans today. Over a quarter of all Americans report having avoided a doctor’s visit for themselves or family members in the last 12 months because they couldn’t afford it; a similar number report not filling a prescription or following treatment. Almost a third have had difficulty paying a medical bill in the last year. And 14% currently have no insurance.  

 Moreover, Americans want government action on health care. Almost a third of Americans are willing to pay higher taxes to deal with the problems of the uninsured, and overall two-thirds prefer some action on the issue to a tax cut. There is also widespread support for a government requirement that businesses offer health insurance to their employees.  

There is a pervasive view that the health care system is inequitable. 72% of Americans think that a patient from a low income family has access to worse quality health care than someone from a high-income family with the same medical problem. And 31% believe members of racial and ethnic minority groups have access to lower quality health care.

Perceived Quality and Trust in the Medical System

Americans rate the quality of health care provided by doctors as generally good and express reasonable levels of confidence in them; in general they rate their own medical care as of higher quality than that received by most Americans. They give reasonable ratings to the quality of health care offered by hospitals but this does not prevent most Americans from worrying that they might develop a medical problem while in hospital.

Childhood Obesity

Americans view childhood obesity as a serious problem, But they place the blame squarely with poor eating habits and a lack of exercise and are not very enthusiastic about government intervention to solve the problem. In general, there is little support for solutions borrowed from anti-tobacco campaigns that would target snack food companies. Americans are strongly opposed to the notion of a snack food tax. They are more divided on whether or not government should regulate TV commercials aimed at children and teens that advertise snack foods and soft drinks (45% in favor and 49% opposed). They are also divided over whether they would be willing to pay additional federal taxes to cover the cost of more nutritious school lunches. The only support for government intervention is to prevent parents from suing snack food companies for their child’s obesity problems. In contrast, schools are seen as a possible solution to the obesity problem. 64% of Americans think that schools should not install snack food and soft drink machines even though sales from these vending machines contribute to school funds. 

Nutritional Supplements & Ephedra

Most Americans rate nutritional supplements as somewhat or very safe (72%). Nonetheless, there is broad support for increased government regulation of these products. Ephedra raises many more concerns than nutritional supplements in general. Among those who have heard of ephedra (68%), only 10% rate is as somewhat or very safe and of those who have heard of it a majority believe it should be withdrawn from the market until proven safe and effective. In total, this results in 42% of Americans who think ephedra should be withdrawn from the market, 20% who support it being sold with warning labels and another 32% who have never heard of it.  This leaves little support for the status quo in which ephedra is being sold with clear warning labels. 

Public Health System and Bioterrorism

Americans express moderate trust in public health officials and basically think they are better prepared than before 9/11 to handle a bioterrorist attack. Only a minority worry that they might personally be victimized by bioterrorism and roughly a third think the Iraq war will increase the risk of an attack in the U.S. When it comes to smallpox, a bare majority of Americans would prefer the government to make the vaccine available now, and almost half would not take it if it were offered to them. Just under two-thirds of Americans believe they have been vaccinated against smallpox in the past (some believe this erroneously given their age), but this has very little impact on their willingness to be vaccinated now. Few believe their previous vaccination is still effective.  Older Americans are especially reluctant to get vaccinated now.  

SARS

The media focus on SARS has resulted in relatively high levels of concern about the disease. A majority of Americans think it is a serious health problem, although few have taken any direct action to prevent contracting the disease or know of others who have done so.  

Methodology

The poll was conducted between May1 and May 20 by the Stony Brook University Center for Survey Research. 810 adults were interviewed from across the nation. The poll is based on an RDD nationally representative sample of telephone numbers drawn from blocks with at least one-listed residential number. Up to 7 contact attempts were made at each selected household and individuals were selected at random within households. Findings are weighted using post-stratification weights for age, gender and census region in accordance with 2002 national Census statistics. The margin of error is plus/minus 3.4 percentage points.