More than three-quarters of Americans (76 percent) support increasing funding for prevention programs that provide people with information and resources and creating policies that help people make healthier choices. Investing in prevention is popular across the political spectrum, with 86 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of Republicans, and 70 percent of Independents supporting investing more in prevention.
This poll shows that Americans from coast to coast and across the political spectrum are overwhelmingly in favor of investing in disease prevention,” said Al Quinlan, president of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. “More than three-quarters of Americans believe the country should invest more in keeping people healthier, and by a nearly four-to-one ratio, they support putting more emphasis on preventing disease rather than treating people after they become sick.
Al Quinlan and Bill McInturff (partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies) wrote a guest post on the Robert Wood Johnson Health Reform blog in June discussing the significance of the research. In the post, they present their findings and show that Americans are increasingly receptive to many of the important reforms included in the Commission’s recommendations.
From the Quinlan/McInturff post:
Quit smoking. Eat right. Exercise more. For years, you’ve heard this from your family, your doctors, your teachers, your friends. Now, you can hear it on pretty much any street corner in the country. A recent survey we conducted provides compelling evidence that Americans have rejected “sick care” and are demanding that we work to keep people healthy in the first place, rather than treating them once they get sick…
…But clearly, this is not just about trying to convince individual people to put down the junk food and cigarettes and hit the gym. It’s also about making it easier for people to make healthier choices. And there are policy implications here. Health care reform begins to make its way through Congress at a time when 72 percent of the country thinks we’re becoming less healthy and 60 percent believe that the American health care system needs a complete overhaul or major reform.
So we put prevention up against five other specific health care reform proposals to see where it ranked, including a national insurance pool, tax credits to small businesses and prohibiting health insurers from denying coverage based on health status, all of which have attained some level of popularity in recent months. Investing in prevention trumps them all, ranking as the top health care reform priority of the national electorate (70 percent say it is a very important priority).
At the end of the day, we’re left with a relatively simple conclusion: the public wants a greater investment in prevention, and it ought to play a significant role in creating legislation that will help determine the direction of health care in our country.
For the past two years, the Commission has studied the factors that lead to good health. As we have considered policies and programs that are working and seen more and more signs of progress, momentum has been building among the American people as well. As this study shows, people understand that for health reform to succeed in improving the health of all Americans, it must include prevention and a steadfast focus on keeping Americans healthy in the first place.
You can download the full Quinlan/McInturff report here. We welcome your comments below.