New Poll Finds 71 Percent of Americans Favor Investing More in Disease Prevention as Central to Health Reform.
by Martin Trussell
At least one aspect of the healthcare reform package making its way through Congress seems to be very popular with voters. A new public opinion survey released today says that 71 percent of Americans would favor an increased investment in disease prevention.
The poll was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies on behalf of Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). It found that, by nearly a three-to-one margin (70 percent to 24 percent), people think prevention will save money rather than cost money. Sixty percent of Americans believe investing in prevention is worth it at a cost of $34 billion out of the $900 billion total proposed health reform spending proposals. Sixty-five percent of Americans say they would either be more likely to support a member of Congress who votes for the proposal to invest in prevention or that it would make no difference to their vote.
“Prevention is clearly one of the most popular parts of health reform,” said Al Quinlan, President of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. “Americans see a real payoff for investing in disease prevention in terms of lowering disease rates and reducing health care costs.”
Bill McInturff, Partner and Co-Founder of Public Opinion Strategies points out, “Even when people learn the price tag in the context of health reform, Americans are supportive of increasing the nation’s investment in prevention and believe it will have a positive impact on improving health and lowering health costs down the road.”
Prevention was the second highest proposal tested in the survey placing right behind prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage because of age, medical history, or pre-existing conditions. Other proposals tested included providing tax credits to small businesses and requiring all businesses to provide health care for their employees or contribute to a fund to help pay for their coverage.
For more information go to; http://healthyamericans.org/
