Opinion Polls on Health Care

Abstract

Public-opinion polls indicate that three quarters of the American public and a majority of hospital administrators, private-insurance executives, and corporate and labor-union purchasers of medical care believe that fundamental changes are needed in the nation's health-care system. Practicing physicians share this viewpoint about half the time, but most leaders of organized medicine disagree strongly and believe that only minor changes are necessary to improve the health-care system.These findings represent the overall conclusion of two national public-opinion surveys conducted by Louis Harris and Associates for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Although there are sharp differences of . . .