Costs and access top public's health priorities
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Medical costs and access still top Americans' health concerns by a wide margin, ahead of food and water safety or reducing chronic diseases, according to a new poll from Gallup and Emory University.
Why it matters: Despite talk in Congress about bringing down drug and other costs, the results show a disconnect with some of the current hot-button debates around childhood vaccines, access to reproductive health and even maternal mortality.
- The sensitivity over costs and coverage could help explain the mounting public anger over health insurance and some state efforts to crank up oversight of carriers.
Zoom in: More than half (52%) of Americans ranked better health care access and affordability as one of their top three priorities when presented with a list of 15 options.
- 37% of those surveyed included ensuring safe food and water in their top three, while 32% picked reducing chronic disease.
- In contrast, 13% included ensuring access to comprehensive reproductive care, 11% listed ensuring childhood vaccination against preventable diseases. The same percentage listed ensuring adequate care for a mother and infant after birth.
- "People are still struggling to pay health health bills," said Stephen Patrick, chair of health policy and management at Emory University.
- "Even though we've made progress over the last 10 years in reducing the rates of uninsurance, we still have challenges in many communities in just getting in to see somebody."
Most respondents said the federal government could better address their top three issues than the states.
- Americans with higher incomes also were likelier to list access as a priority than those with lower incomes.
The results show agreement among Democrats and Republicans that improving access and affordability and ensuring food and water safety should be top priorities for officials.
- But more Democratic voters (32%) rated improved access and affordability as their top priority, while food safety came in at No. 1 for more Republican voters (24%).
Between the lines: Health and Human Services Secretary-designate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a Senate confirmation hearing last week that he sees ending chronic disease as the key to fixing all issues facing the United States health care system.
- "If we don't solve that problem ... all of the other disputes we have about who's paying and whether it's insurance companies, whether it's providers, whether it's HMOs, whether it's patients or families, all of those are moving deck chairs around on the Titanic," Kennedy said.
The intrigue: Just 2% of survey respondents rated preparing for future pandemics as their top public health priority, and only 12% rated it in their top three issues.
- "As we see the U.S. beginning to deal with bird flu, I worry about that," Patrick said.
- 6% listed addressing the health effects of climate change and extreme weather.
The poll surveyed 2,121 adults between Dec. 2-15.
