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The eMatchPhysicians Blog 
What are the Priorities of Americans When It Comes to Health Care?
Posted on: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Americans understand that insurance doesn’t actually pay for everything, according to a study by the Sacramento Center for Health Care Decisions. This shows that Americans are quite able to set priorities for health care on their own without leaders trying to tell them what to do. The study put health care issues into three categories; what matters most, what matters a little, and what matters least. As healthcare organizations, we can use this information to do a bit of triage on what patients deem important in their own care.
What Matters Most:
- Problems that will lead to serious medical consequences or death if left untreated
- Problems that interfere with daily life
- Problems that result in higher societal costs if left untreated
What Matters A Little:
- Problems that bring personal distress
- Problems that result in physical discomfort
- Nonmedical services that prevent disease through getting healthy and fit
What Matters Least:
- Problems that are unsightly but not harmful (i.e. varicose veins)
- Problems that delay or prevent recreation
- Treatments that are required by patients to feel reassured
- Problems that resolve without treatment
There are a few takeaways from this list. One of the more interesting items is that prevention, which many would have thought mattered the least, actually matters a little to most Californians who took the survey. Since California has a reputation as a healthier state than most, it would be interesting to see the same study done on a national scale to see if this still held true. Perhaps it is better to have it done at the state level in order to more accurately gauge the wishes of people in each individual state.
One of the most interesting aspects of the study is that people tended to put the welfare of their family and friends ahead of their own, and even the welfare of society. You certainly wouldn’t have expected to see “problems that have a higher societal cost” at the top of the list if you were to guess the results in advance.
All in all, a very interesting study and one that bears repeating as we forge ahead with health care reform. More at recordnet.com.
Tags: healthcare reform, healthcare systems, U.S. Healthcare System
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