Health Insurance Coverage Tops Priorities For Congress in Next 5 Years

Ranking summary shows that expanding health insurance coverage, curbing health care costs and reforming Medicare are top concern for the American people and should be priorities for the new congress.

Percent responding "absolutely essential" or "very important"

• Expand health insurance coverage for the uninsured 1 (88%)

• Enact reforms to moderate rising health care costs 2 (81%)

• Reform Medicare to ensure its long-run solvency 3 (80%)

• Increase use of IT to improve quality and safety of medical care 3 (80%)

• Expand SCHIP to reach all uninsured children 5 (76%)

• Ensure families don't pay excessive out-of-pocket costs relative to income 6 (75%)

• Address shortage of trained health care professionals 7 (70%)

• Control rising cost of prescription drugs 8 (66%)

• Reform Medicare payment to reward performance on quality and efficiency 9 (64%)

• Reduce racial/ethnic disparities in care 9 (64)

Rank based on proportion of respondents responding "absolutely essential" or "very important"; statistical significance of differences cannot be precisely determined.

The online survey was conducted within the United States by Harris Interactive between November 14, 2006 and December 8, 2006.