Schwitzer health news blog

Media don't connect on public's health care cost/uninsured concerns

Harvard's Bob Blendon, in an analysis of public opinion surveys on the Health Affairs website, summarizes Americans' attitudes about health care reform going into the mid-term elections. Excerpt:

"Most U.S. news coverage about medical care issues during the past year has concentrated on Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit, while many in the research and professional community have focused on the nation’s quality-of-care problems. What is important to recognize is that these are not the American public’s top health care priorities today. Americans want their government to do something about their rising health care costs and the problems of the uninsured. When Americans talk about health care costs, however, their concern is not for the share of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) going toward health care, but rather the financial impact on their own families."