Americans Divided on Health Care Reform and Increasing Costs

As the healthcare debate continues to rage on in the U.S., a recent survey from DSS Research shows there is a clear divide between getting better access to healthcare and slowing down rising costs.

DSS Research developed a proprietary set of metrics to gauge the level of engagement in health care on the part of the insured.

With the most recent survey, Americans were given the opportunity to choose between making their initial priority offering some level of health insurance coverage for all citizens or slowing down the quickly increasing costs of healthcare.

While there is no clear cut winner between either of these major strategies for addressing the health care crises with 50.7 percent leaning toward universal coverage and 49.3 percent opting to slow done increasing costs. There were, however, a number of differences in the attitudes of individuals depending upon which group of people you discussed the matter with.

The uninsured, least educated and those with the lowest income households lean towards focusing on health insurance coverage for everyone while those with more education, higher incomes and the oldest households report bending the cost curve should be at the top of the list.

Results differ due to level of engagement in health care due to the DSS health care engagement index. The most engaged and least engaged consumers opt for offering coverage for all individuals, while those with more moderate levels of health care engagement favor decreasing the increase in health care costs as the first order of business.

The survey for 1,021 consumers asked which if nine practical solutions they want lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to consider when it comes to fixing increasing health care costs and decreasing access to health insurance.

Thirty-five percent of Americans in the survey indicated that offering tax breaks and incentives to make health insurance more affordable is their first option to address the growing problems for health care. Almost two-thirds of consumers named this as their first or second option.

Meantime, almost 29 percent would opt for the Federal Government to form a health insurance plan that competes on a level playing field with private health insurers. Consumers in the 18 to 30 range are nearly twice as likely as senior citizens to think a government run health plan should the first or second priority of Congress. The 18 to 30 year olds are the only group of Americans more likely to choose a government run health plan over tax breaks and incentives.

Also, only 18% of consumers think the initial priority of lawmakers should be to decrease state and Federal regulations regarding health insurance and place caps on medical malpractice suits.

Almost half of seniors ranked this option as their first or second choice, selecting it much more often than younger Americans.