Today’s Kaiser Health Tracking Poll contains interesting data about support for health reform (steady positives, declining negatives), what’s much more telling is the extent of seniors’ a) ignorance of basic facts about health reform and b) widespread belief that reform includes death panels and cuts Medicare benefits.
Yikes.
According to Kaiser, “Half of seniors (50%) say the law will cut benefits that were previously provided to all people on Medicare, and more than a third (36%) incorrectly believe the law will “allow a government panel to make decisions about end-of-life care for people on Medicare.”
These are both factually incorrect.
Moreover, “Despite the fact that Medicare’s actuaries predict the health reform law will extend the life of the Medicare Part A Trust Fund by 12 years (from 2017 to 2029), only 14 percent of seniors know this and nearly half (45%) of seniors think the health reform law will weaken the financial condition of the fund.
”
There are several ways to look at this.
The power of the anti-reform noise machine is truly impressive; death panel myth promoters are clearly effective in getting people to believe their claims, despite widespread debunking of the claim by multiple independent organizations. (One well-respected organization, Politifact.com (run by the St Pete Times, a terrific newspaper, called it “pants on fire false).
Then again, it’s hard to underestimate the ignorance of the American public; we’re talking about a country where 43% of the population doesn’t believe in human evolution…
Seniors tend to vote in higher percentages than the rest of the population, so their concerns about reform, based at least in part on ignorance of the actual reform bill and its provisions, may well have a disproportionate impact on the election this fall.
Closer to home, health plans and insurers have to take note of these poll numbers and consider the impact on their own members.
As health plans increasingly emphasize provider network selection based on quality and outcomes data; rigorously employ evidence-based medical guidelines; and get tougher on experimental and unproven medical procedures and therapies, they are going to be exposed to the same type of fear-mongering from idiots using the public’s ignorance and fear to gain notoriety.
What does this mean for you?
Health plans must – and I mean must – develop and implement programs to stay on top of the public’s perception and opinions about them. Call it opinion monitoring, social network monitoring, complaint management, whatever, but do it. But this will only work if you proactively educate members and the markets about what you’re doing and why. Otherwise it’s purely defensive, will appear so, and will be little help when the stuff hits the fan.
Which it always does.
Jul
29
This is not about people’s ignorance, Joe. It’s about their skepticism that what their government tells them is true. Look at the original financial projections for government-run programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security and each program’s current financial condition. The seniors have heard this song before. That is why the citizenry is skeptical of its government’s pronouncements.
Thank you for your insights. As a senior citizen and a pharmacist I hear lots of noise of a reduction in benefits for seniors. Some may be true as the Advantage plans give up their subsidies, but the long term benefits far outweigh the “freebies”.
speaking of mis-information is a pool that samples 37% Democrat to 22% Republican really being honest? What would the results be if we sampled something closer to national trends, like 35.4% Democrat and 33% Republican, your entire argument would disappear.
What is humorous is how Liberals always use distorted polls when talking about deceit and propoganda but blaming it on the right. There is no 12% party identification gap. That claim is a joke and any argument based on it is a joke.
Here are the enternals incase you doubt the adsurd sampling error
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/8084-T.pdf
interesting data about support for health reform (steady positives, declining negatives)
21% to 25% to 23% that’s one way to control your negatives, just keep sampling fewer Republicans as it gets worse
Nate – I’m not sure I follow the logic – how does going from 21% to 23% reflect a decline? that’s a 10% increase.
Nate – I’m afraid you’re ignoring the central point of the post – the issues inherent in a misinformed populace, and specifically as it relates to health plans.
re your contention about the results of the kff polls, two points.
1. the kff poll has used the same sampling process throughout, therefore the results are based on a similar pool of respondents. therefore the change is significant and of interest. you may not like it, but there it is.
2. pollster’s data – which is a ‘meta-poll’ shows the same results since the PPACA was passed, which negates your contention that the kff poll is somehow biased.
I appreciate the fact that you have an ideological axe to grind, but searching for ways to validate your opinion isn’t getting you closer to understanding the issue. rather you may want to look at this with a more open mind.
Paduda
Norm – thanks for the note.
I’d disagree, rather enthusiastically. This is absolutely ABOUT a lack of understanding on the part of seniors. If you peruse the details of the report, you’ll see what I mean.
Allow me to quote Maggie Mahar:
A poll of Americans over the age of 65 conducted by Harris Interactive for the National Council on Aging (NCOA), and released just last week, reveals that seniors have swallowed the misinformation.
* only 22 percent of seniors polled knew that the law will not cut their basic Medicare benefits, compared with 42 percent who thought it will cut them, and 37 percent who said they don’t know if they will lose benefits;
* only 34% knew that Medicare spending will continue to grow under the new law, just more slowly.
* and 45% thought that the new law cuts Medicare payments to doctors; only 14% knew that this isn’t true. 41% said that they didn’t know.
Overall, the Harris poll revealed that only 17% of seniors knew the correct answers to more than half of the 12 factual questions posed about key aspects of new law, and only 9% knew the correct answers to at least two-thirds of the questions.
The level of ignorance and misinformation is sort of astounding,” says Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll. “We’ve had an incredibly heated debate about this for a long time. And what people were reacting to was the rhetoric, not the substance of what was in the bill, because they didn’t actually know what was or was not in the bill.”
Paduda