Global Health

Data Note Examines Recent Polling on Public's Willingness to Pay for Health Reform
The Foundation’s public opinion team looks at the raft of polls recently released on the public’s willingness to pay for an expansion of coverage to their fellow citizens. The brief report compares and contrasts findings on Americans’ general inclinations on the topic, and also revisits recent findings on specific revenue raising proposals.

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll
Throughout 2009, the Kaiser Family Foundation is conducting surveys tracking the public’s experiences in the health care system, their ranking of health as a policy priority, and their views on health care reform options.

The Public and the Health Care Delivery System
This 2009 survey by NPR and researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health highlights the public’s attitudes and experiences with the American health care delivery system. The new survey sheds light on Americans’ experiences with issues more typically discussed by health policy experts — including electronic medical records, coordination of care and comparative effectiveness — all of which have become serious components of reform plans and some of which have been signed into law this year. It also covers public opinion on possible policy changes. The telephone survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,238 adults was conducted between March 12 and March 22. 

The Public's Health Care Agenda for the New President and Congress
This survey captures the public's attitudes regarding the health care agenda for President Obama and the new Congress in 2009. It assesses the relative priority placed on health care by the American public as part of addressing the economic recession and as a large scale reform issue. The public's priorities for health care reform and their views on a range of other health policy issues are presented. 

What happened to Americans' support for the Clinton health plan?
A 1995 article co-authored by Mollyann Brodie of the Kaiser Family Foundation in the journal Health Affairs examines how, within a twelve-month period, public support for the Clinton plan fell from 71 percent to 43 percent. The administration lost substantial support among two politically important groups — the elderly and Democrats. This outcome was brought on by a series of key strategic and substantive misjudgments by the administration in the choices that it made in the development of its plan. These particular decisions inadvertently reinforced the public's deeply held cynicism that although health care reform was needed, the government in Washington would not do it right and would ultimately leave the middle class worse off than it was before.