Health Care: How Can We Reduce Costs and Still Get the Care We Need?

NOW THAT YOU’VE HAD a chance to participate in a forum on this issue, we’d like to know what you are thinking. Your opinions, along with those of thousands of others who participated in these forums, will be reflected in a summary report that will be available to all citizens, including those who took part in the forums, as well as officeholders, members of the news media, and others in your community.

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* 1. Do you agree or disagree with the statements below?

  Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree Not Sure
The unhealthy choices made by many Americans—who eat too much, and smoke and drink too much—are a chief cause of skyrocketing health-care costs.
I want a health-care system where patients have a lot of choice about doctors and hospitals, even if it makes the overall system more expensive.
We have far too many specialists and not enough primary care doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners.
Far too many doctors order unnecessary tests and procedures.
Too much health-care money is spent on trying to keep people alive for a few more weeks or months at the end of their lives.
It’s just not possible to contain the growing costs of health care without lowering the quality of care for most Americans.

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* 2. Do you favor or oppose each of these actions?

  Strongly Favor Somewhat Favor Somewhat Oppose Strongly Oppose Not Sure
The government should tax sugary sodas and raise other “sin taxes” to discourage unhealthy lifestyles, EVEN IF this reduces our choices and moves us in the direction of a “nanny state.”
Congress should raise the age of eligibility for Medicare to 67, EVEN IF that means seniors under 67 would have to get health insurance on their own or from an employer.
Insurance companies should charge more for people who are overweight or who have unhealthy habits, such as smoking and drinking, EVEN IF this gives insurance companies an easy way to make more money.
Hospitals and doctors should be required to post their prices so patients could “shop” for health care, EVEN IF most people don’t have the time or inclination to do so when they are sick.
Insurance companies should stop paying for costly and invasive treatments for patients with no chance of recovery, EVEN IF patients or their families want them.
Employees should be required to take on more of their health-care costs through plans that demand higher premiums and copays, EVEN IF some people would delay seeing doctors until conditions worsen and become more expensive to treat.
We should create a single-payer, national health insurance system run by the government, EVEN IF this might limit our choice of doctors and hospitals and ultimately lead to rationing.
Insurance companies should end the current fee-for- service payments to doctors and pay doctors flat fees instead, EVEN IF this might cause some doctors to skimp on what they do for patients.
Schools should be required to restore physical education classes and all students should have to take them, EVEN IF this means less time for students to focus on academics.

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* 3. Are you thinking differently about this issue now that you have participated in the forum?

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* 4. In your forum, did you talk about aspects of the issue you hadn’t considered before?

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* 5. What, if anything, might citizens in your community do differently as a result of this forum?

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* 6. Not including this forum, how many National Issues Forums have you attended?

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* 7. Are you male or female?

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* 8. How old are you?

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* 9. Are you:

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* 10. Where do you live?

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* 11. What is your zip code?

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* 12. What state do you live in?

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