Most Americans Have Good Health, Little Unmet Need, And Few Health Care Expenses.

The distribution of health care expenditures remains highly concentrated, but most Americans use few health care resources and have low out-of-pocket spending. More than 93 percent of "low spenders" (those in the bottom half of the population) believe they have received all needed care in a timely manner. The low spending by the majority of the population has remained almost unchanged during the thirty-seven-year period examined.

The Need For Ongoing Surveys About Physician Practice Costs.

Physicians continue to be the subject of many survey efforts asking them about a wide range of issues including training, retirement plans, satisfaction with practice, practice organization, and practice costs. The resources dedicated to the collection of different types of data have changed over time. Collection efforts have both expanded and contracted.

Young Adult Insurance Coverage And Out-Of-Pocket Spending: Long-Term Patterns.

The Affordable Care Act appears to have improved health insurance coverage for young adults (ages 18-30). But data from twenty national surveys conducted between 1977 and 2013 paint a more complex picture, showing coverage rates lower in 2013 than they were thirty-six years earlier. Racial and ethnic disparities in coverage have declined recently, while out-of-pocket expenditures remain low for most young adults.

Connecting the ivory tower to main street: setting research priorities for real-world impact.

Health care decisionmakers face increasing pressure to use health care resources more efficiently, but the information they need to assess policy options often is unavailable or not disseminated in a useful form. Findings from stakeholder meetings and a survey of private-sector health care decisionmakers in California begin to identify high-priority issues, the perceived adequacy of current information, and preferred formats and other desired attributes of research. This is a first step in establishing a systematic approach to linking the information priorities of private-sector decisionmakers with those who fund and conduct research.

Views on health care technology: Americans consider the risks and sources of information.

We conducted a survey to learn about Americans' familiarity with specific technologies, their sources of information, and their trust in those sources. Our findings indicate a high degree of familiarity with common devices and procedures as well as a high level of interest in better understanding them. Americans are broadly supportive of new technology, but there was not blanket acceptance of all technologies.

Twenty-five years of health surveys: does more data mean better data?

Major increases in the resources devoted to the collection of health-related data and advances in survey methodology may be offset by more nonresponse and coverage bias resulting from privacy concerns, technological changes, and an increasingly complex health care environment. Hence, it is unclear whether policymakers today are basing their decisions on data that are of higher or even the same quality as those collected twenty-five years ago. We offer several recommendations for improving data quality, including changes related to Office of Management and Budget review, broad reexamination of the federal health survey portfolio, and greater investment in survey methods research.

Exploring the public's views on the health care system: a national survey on the issues and options.

Instead of assessing support for specific health reform initiatives, this study examines fundamental attitudes that shape views about the provision and financing of health insurance. We find strong support for equity and expansion of coverage, with few differences across sociodemographic groups, but some support for holding individuals responsible for health-related behavior. Consumers want to retain choice of plans and coverage for routine expense yet not bear additional financial burden.

Public perceptions of cost containment strategies: mixed signals for managed care.

With health care costs, and insurance premiums in particular, escalating rapidly, we may see the reintroduction of utilization management strategies associated with managed care, which seemed destined for oblivion only a short time ago. Results from a survey to assess Americans' views of managed care cost containment strategies indicate mixed support: Despite an overall lack of confidence in managed care, Americans appear to be receptive to specific managed care practices. Those designing cost containment strategies must find a balance between imposing restrictions that moderate use and hold down costs and allowing consumers to retain some control over their own health care.

Workers' perspectives on mandated employer health insurance.

There is renewed discussion of using employer mandates as a strategy for decreasing the number of uninsured Americans. California recently passed the Health Insurance Act of 2003, the first state-based "play-or-pay" legislation in nearly a decade. To better understand workers' perceptions, the California HealthCare Foundation commissioned NORC at the University of Chicago to conduct a survey to assess workers' views on mandated employer coverage.

Americans' views about the adequacy of health care for children and the elderly.

Recent attempts to increase health coverage for specific populations incrementally have been more successful than efforts to dramatically reconfigure the health care system. We present findings from a survey to assess support for programs for children compared with those for the elderly, as well as the public's desire to prioritize whether the needs of one should be addressed over the needs of the other. Americans believe that the health care needs of both children and the elderly are not being met, and there is clear and widespread support for a government role in ensuring adequate health care.

Paying for health care in retirement: workers' knowledge of benefits and expenses.

Anecdotal evidence of retirees returning to the workforce to obtain health coverage has appeared against a backdrop of rising health insurance premiums and cutbacks in employer health benefit offerings to both current and future retirees. We present findings from a survey of workers ages forty-five to sixty-four concerning their attitudes toward and plans for health care coverage and expenses during retirement. We find a mismatch between workers' expectations about the benefits that are likely to be available to them and their planning as to how they will pay for health care in retirement.

Perspectives of rural hospitals on bioterrorism preparedness planning.

Even the smallest, most isolated rural hospitals are now required to have bioterrorism preparedness plans. From the perspective of many rural hospitals, however, there is a disparity between Federal expectations and the realities of small hospitals operating in geographically isolated communities. As part of an effort to better understand how to close this gap, the Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis convened a panel of representatives of rural hospitals who are responsible for bioterrorism preparedness in their hospitals.

Short report: migration among persons living with HIV.

Data from the first national probability sample of persons with HIV, the HIV Cost of Services and Utilization Survey (HCSUS), are used to examine migration patterns among persons with HIV/AIDS in the USA. Persons with serious illness may choose to relocate to receive better care or support. This migration has implications for the distribution of resources.

Impact of differential response rates on the quality of data collected in the CTS physician survey.

Survey administrators face trade-offs between expending additional survey resources to maximize response rates versus using fewer resources and accepting lower response rates. Using data from the Community Tracking Study's Physician Survey, we examined how survey estimates and data quality changed as additional respondents completed the survey. Results showed that improvements in response rates over the range examined (i.

Where to seek care: an examination of people in rural areas with HIV/AIDS.

Though HIV/AIDS has spread to rural areas, little empirical evidence is available on where patients living in these areas receive care. This article presents estimates of rural residents in care for HIV/AIDS, their demographic and health-related characteristics, information about whether they receive care in a rural or urban setting, and data on the drug therapies prescribed. The estimates come from the HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study (HCSUS), a nationally representative probability sample of HIV-infected adults receiving care in the contiguous United States.