 Half of all U.S. adults with health insurance coverage worry their expenses will be so high they won’t be able to afford it, According to a recent online survey of more than 2,400 adults conducted by Harris Interactive for The Wall Street Journal Online’s Health Industry Edition. Just as many worry their coverage will be drastically reduced or eliminated because of costs, according to the survey; one in five adults worries a great deal about these issues.
Three in four U.S. adults support a variety of initiatives to expand insurance coverage. All of these options are viewed with equal favor by individuals who currently have employer-sponsored coverage and those who are uninsured. By contrast, only a quarter of those polled said they are willing to pay more in taxes to cover more people under Medicare or Medicaid. Specifically, 76 percent said they support “offering a government-subsidized health insurance plan to individuals who do not have access to employer-paid health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.” The same percentage of respondents said they were in favor of “providing tax credits or other government subsidies to help people purchase health insurance,” while 74 percent indicated they support “requiring employers to provide health insurance for all of their employees.” Just 26 percent favor “paying more income taxes to cover more people via Medicare or Medicaid.” Seventy-four percent of U.S. adults polled said they would support a measure requiring employers to provide insurance for all of their employees. However, the question of employer mandates often raises concerns about the impact this might have on smaller employers. The public is of two minds on this issue. Two-thirds of all adults believe that requiring smaller employers to provide health insurance might force some employers out of business. But, when asked if the benefits of such mandates would outweigh these risks, 47 percent say they would and 53 percent say they would not. Katherine Binns, president of Healthcare Research at Harris Interactive, said, "As the Democrats establish their agenda on Capitol Hill and the Presidential candidates launch their campaigns, a variety of proposals have been made to expand health insurance to cover more of the uninsured. These findings suggest that the public is willing to back proposals that do not rely on big government or higher taxes. With large numbers of insured people worrying about the affordability and security of their benefits, its not surprising to see that support for these types of programs is equally strong among the insured as well the uninsured." For more on this survey, go to HarrisInteractive.com  Until next time!
|
HEALTH 
