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CCH® BENEFITS — 06/26/09

Majority Of American See Need For Health Care Reform, But Are Not Willing To Pay For It: Kaiser

from Spencer’s Benefits Reports: A majority of Americans see the urgency of implementing health reform, but fewer than half are willing to pay more for it, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation June Health Tracking Poll. More than three-fifths (61%) of Americans continue to believe that health reform is more important than ever given the country’s economic problems. The majority of respondents support key elements of reform currently under consideration, such as employer mandates (69%), individual mandates (71%), and a public plan option (65%-67% depending on the wording).

However, as seen in previous polls, less than half of the public (41%) are willing to pay more for health care reform, and 40% support changing the tax treatment of employer based health insurance, a major source of revenue under consideration. “Overall opinion remains highly moveable, with support for many elements of reform susceptible to arguments pro and con and often moving by as much as 40 percentage points when arguments are tested,” Kaiser reported.

Fueling the public’s interest in health care reform, is an individual skipping or delaying needed care, such as a recommended test or treatment or not filling a prescription, in the past 12 months due to costs 55% report that they or a member of their household have done so.

The Health Tracking Poll also revealed the following information:

• Only about 20% of people reported seeing a health care reform-related ad and most who did thought the ad was pro-reform.
• Substantial majorities said that big business groups (64%), health insurers (62%), drug companies (58%), and doctors groups (54%) are NOT supporting the president’s and Congress’ effort to reform health care this year. Kaiser points out that this perception exists “despite the fact that they have been very publicly at the table so far on health reform.” Perhaps the perception of the American public is that these special interest groups are only “at the health reform table” to protect their interests rather than to promote true reform.
• More than half (53%) supported limiting future increases in how much doctors and hospitals are paid under Medicare to help pay for health reform (37% opposed); a majority (56%) of those younger than age 65 supported this but only 40% of those age 65 or older did. Reductions in future increases in Medicare payments are thought to be an important potential part of a health reform financing package.
• A large majority (70%) liked the idea of insurance exchanges—which the Kaiser poll tested with different descriptions—to help people purchase insurance on their own. Exchanges are one key part of legislation under discussion.

Paying For Health Reform

The Kaiser survey also included several questions health reform financing, with these responses:

• More than half (54%) of the public said they are not willing to pay more to expand coverage to the uninsured.
• Three-fifths (60%) continued to believe that if policymakers made the right changes the health care system could be reformed without spending more money.
• More than half (54%) of Americans oppose taxing employer-sponsored health benefits of those with the most generous plans (but 63% of those with employer-based coverage).
• More than two-thirds (67%) oppose across-the-board increases on income taxes.
• On the other hand, more than half supports taxing soda (53%) and “unhealthy” snack foods (55%). More than two-thirds support increased taxes on the wealthy (68%), on cigarettes (68%) and on alcoholic beverages (67%) to pay for health reform.

“With all the talk of inefficiencies in the system and achieving future savings, the public may confuse the potential for long-term savings with the need for short-term outlays and think that health care can be reformed for free,” commented Kaiser president and CEO Drew Altman. This could make policymakers’ jobs tougher when the price tag for the legislation comes out.”

Bipartisan (Dis)Agreement

Another challenge for health reform will be forging bipartisan support, as President Obama would prefer. But the Kaiser poll found areas of large partisan disagreement. For example, three-quarters (74%) of Democrats and six in ten (59%) independents said given the country’s serious economic problems health reform is more important than ever, while a majority (56%) of Republicans said we cannot afford health care reform right now. A slim majority of Democrats (53%) are willing to pay more for providing coverage, while smaller numbers of independents (38%) and Republicans (29%) say the same.

But there is some agreement across political party lines on key health reform issues, such as that insurance exchanges that guaranteed that “participating plans would not deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions or charge higher premiums to those who are in poorer health” would be helpful if one had to purchase health insurance on one’s own--a majority of Democrats (68%), Republicans (69%) and independents (75%) agreed on this point. Previous Kaiser tracking polls also found strong bipartisan agreement on measures to reform the private health insurance marketplace, such as eliminating medical underwriting.

The survey of 1,205 adults was conducted the first week in June. For more information, visit http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/posr061609pkg.cfm.

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