[afro-nets] Health Affairs: As US Elections Approach, Health Care Is A Second-Tier Issue

["Kathleen Ford" <kford@projecthope.org>]

Health Affairs: As US Elections Approach, Health Care Is A Second-Tier Issue
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As Elections Approach, Health Care Is A "Second-Tier" Issue

Americans say that high costs and the lack of insurance and access to care are the most pressing health care problems for government to address, Robert Blendon and coauthors report in an article published today as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive. Writing a month before the 2006 congressional election, the researchers also say that health care overall is a "second-tier issue" for the American public, ranking behind Iraq, the economy, and gasoline prices as a priority for government action.

When Americans talk about health care costs, they're talking about the hit on the family budget, not about a percentage of the gross domestic product, say Blendon, a professor of health policy and political analysis at the Harvard School of Public Health, and his coauthors. In 2006, for example, two-thirds of respondents opined that the average American spends too much on health care. By contrast, and contrary to the opinion of many experts, majorities of Americans consistently say that both overall U.S. health care spending and government health care spending are too low.

You can read the article at
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.25.w508

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Kathleen Ford
mailto:kford@projecthope.org