Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of Americans' Perceptions About For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Health Care
December 1995
Questionnaire and National Top-Line Data
1. Thinking specifically about health insurance plans and health maintenance organizations, which kinds of organizations do you think (read each item) would it be not-for-profit plans and HMOs, or independent for-profit organizations?
| | Not-For-Profit | For-Profit |
| Are more helpful to the community | 66% | 30% |
| Cost you less | 63% | 29% |
| Are more responsive to customers | 46% | 50% |
| Provide better quality care | 43% | 49% |
| Are more efficient | 42% | 53% |
2. Now thinking specifically about hospitals, which kinds of organizations do you think (read each item) would it be non-profit hospitals or for-profit hospitals?
| | Not-For-Profit | For-Profit |
| Are more helpful to the community | 65% | 31% |
| Cost you less | 73% | 22% |
| Are more responsive to customers | 42% | 54% |
| Provide better quality care | 34% | 57% |
| Are more efficient | 35% | 59% |
3. Please tell me which type of health care organization you would trust to provide you with high quality health care at a reasonable price -- would it be a For-Profit insurance plan, HMO, or hospital, or a Not-For-Profit health insurance plan, HMO, or hospital, or do you think there is not much difference?
| For-Profit | 25% |
| Not-for-Profit | 26% |
| Not much difference | 46% |
| Not sure/Refused | 4% |
4. Which do you think is better for your community -- a hospital run and owned by a local for-profit organization or a hospital run and owned by a for-profit national chain?
| Local for-profit organization | 70% |
| For-profit national chain | 26% |
| Not sure/Refused | 4% |
5. I'm going to read you a list of statements about health care in the United States. For each one, please tell me if you agree or disagree.
| | Agree | Disagree | Not Sure |
| There are more national chains of for-profit health care organizations than there were three years ago | 81% | 14% | 4% |
| There has been an increase in the number of mergers between local hospitals occurring lately | 79% | 17% | 4% |
| There has been an increase in the number of for-profit companies providing health care in local communities | 71% | 24% | 5% |
| Many hospitals are being bought by corporations whose main businesses is something other than health care | 61% | 32% | 7% |
| State and local governments now own and run more hospitals than they did 3 years ago | 46% | 44% | 11% |
Methodology
These findings were collected for the Kaiser Family Foundation as part of a national random-sample, telephone survey of 1,007 adults nationwide. The survey was conducted by Louis Harris & Associates between November 2-6, 1995. The margin of error in the national sample is plus or minus 4 percent.
These questions only assess Americans'
perceptions about for-profit and not-for-profit health care and the trends currently underway in the health care industry. They do not attempt to determine people's actual knowledge as to the profit-status of their own health care providers or their real-life experiences with those providers.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation, based in Menlo Park, California, is a nonprofit, independent national health care philanthropy and is not associated with Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Industries. The Foundation's work is focused on four main areas: health policy, reproductive health, HIV, and health and development in South Africa.
