A new poll from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health offers an interesting snapshot of Americans' views on the cost of health services and quality of care.
Roughly 1,500 adults across the country were surveyed for the poll and slightly more than a quarter of respondents had a serious injury or illness or an overnight hospitalization within the past 12 months. Shots reports:
When the results came back, we found that people who have a serious medical condition or who've been in the hospital in the past year tended to have more concerns about costs and quality than people who aren't sick. No big surprise there.
But what was notable: 3 of 4 people who were sick said cost is a very serious problem, and half said quality is a very serious problem.
Nearly half of those with recent serious illness say they felt burdened by what they had to pay out of their own pocket for care.
The recently ill are more likely to say the cost and quality of care have worsened over the past five years, compared to people who weren't sick.
Among people who've recently required a lot of care, significant proportions say their treatment was poorly managed, with nearly a third complaining of poor communication among their caregivers. One in eight believe they got the wrong diagnosis, treatment or test.
The results prompted NPR to put out a call out on Facebook asking users to share their experiences with the health-care system and launch a series called "Sick in America."
Previously: Personal essays highlight importance of cost-conscious medical decisions, Educating physicians on the cost of care, When it comes to health-care spending, U.S. is “on a different planet” and U.S. health-care costs rising faster than abroad
Photo by Stanford EdTech
