AFL-CIO and Working America release Health Care Survey Results
The survey was conducted by the AFL-CIO and Working America.
The survey, released today, is one of the largest opinion pools available on health care. Of those who took the survey, nearly 7,500 submitted personal stories. The survey and stories are available at the link listed below.
How broken is America’s health care? Ninety-five percent of those who took the online survey—released today, click here—say it needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt.
For the uninsured, the system’s failures strike hard. In the past year, 76 percent of people who lack insurance themselves and 71 percent of people with uninsured children say someone in their family did not visit a doctor when sick because of cost.
Sixty-seven percent of the uninsured and 66 percent of those whose children are uninsured report skipping medical treatment or follow-up care recommended by a doctor.
Fifty-seven percent of the uninsured and 61 percent of people with uninsured children had to choose between paying for medical care or prescriptions and other essential needs (such as the rent or mortgage and utilities).
The respondents include union members and those without unions, young and old, insured and uninsured. The AFL-CIO will present the results of this survey to candidates for public office at every level and increase its mobilization to help ensure that candidates who win in November go into office with a mandate for real health care reform.
The often heart-wrenching personal stories submitted tell of skipping medical care because of the cost, or of seeing loved ones becoming seriously ill and sometimes dying because they couldn’t afford proper care. Even those with health insurance relate horror stories in which insurance companies deny coverage or they are unable to afford the increasingly costly deductibles, co-payments and premiums. (Click here to read the stories.)
During the past several years, much has been written about the health care problems of the nation’s uninsured—now some 47 million people. What is particularly striking about those who took the AFL-CIO survey and who expressed such deep dissatisfaction about the health care system is that most are insured and employed. Most are college graduates and more than half are union members.
Health care will be a major issue in the 2008 presidential and congressional campaigns, say 79 percent of respondents and 97 percent say they do plan to vote this fall. To learn more about the AFL-CIO’s efforts for affordable, quality health care for all.
Tonight, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will hold a conference call with several hundred of the survey’s respondents who have volunteered to become health care activists to help fix the health care system and Turn Around America.
The survey found the health care woes working families face today are part of the larger economic problems confronting them. Eighty-three percent of the respondents say their families have just enough to get by or are falling behind and 84 percent fear their children’s standard of living will be worse.
That economic angst is reflected in their concerns about health care coverage. Of those who took the survey, 77 percent are in insured families. Of that group, 78 percent get their coverage through work, 20 percent through Medicare, 15 percent purchase their own insurance and the rest through various methods.
Some 96 percent of insured respondents say they are concerned about being able to afford coverage during the next few years. Even today, 94 percent say they are dissatisfied with the cost of their current coverage, with 61 percent saying their costs have gotten worse.
As cost grows, the quality of health care seems to slip, and 62 percent say they are dissatisfied with their health care quality. In addition, more than half of those with coverage say it does not provide, or makes unaffordable, vital health services such as prescription drugs, preventive care and checkups.
Among other survey findings:
Forty-six percent of all respondents say their out-of-pocket health care costs last year were between $1,000 and $5,000, while 17 percent of those with health coverage shelled out more than $5,000.
Seventy-one percent of the insured worry about losing coverage because they may lose or change jobs.
Almost half overall (48 percent) and 60 percent of Latinos say they have or a family member has stayed in a job to keep health care benefits when they would have preferred changing jobs. People of color, including 75 percent of African Americans and 76 percent of Latinos, are especially likely to voice dissatisfaction with health care quality.
Large majorities in all age groups—from 74 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds to 80 percent among 50- to 64-year-olds—consider health care a very important voting issue for the 2008 elections.
Survey respondents were asked what advice they would give lawmakers and candidates about fixing the health care system. They called for coverage for all and for letting doctors make medical decisions, not insurance companies. They especially noted that most of those decision makers responsible for letting the nation’s health care system collapse for so many working families enjoy the kind of quality and comprehensive coverage that most of us don’t. One respondent wrote:
Let’s catch up with the rest of the world and adopt a universal health care plan and insure everyone. Let’s make health care a human right like it should be.
While another noted:
Americans deserve health care for all. Our elected officials have some of the best health care available, while their constituents suffer. We are in a health care crisis, and the citizens of other countries far surpass us in the quality of care they get. Join the national fight to protect health care for those who have it—and to provide secure health care for those who don’t.
You also can find state-by-state breakdowns on the AFL-CIO website.
