Health Care and—Not or—the Economy

Yesterday Maggie posted on how economic insecurity and health care are in fact related issues. I agree 100 percent, and wanted to take the opportunity to show that the American people concur. Health care costs and economic insecurity aren’t in competition for public mindshare—according to poll responses at least, the two are coupled.

Every year Gallup asks voters “Are you generally satisfied or dissatisfied with the total cost of health care in this country?" Check out the results from 2001 through 2007 below.

The trend toward being more worried about price of health care is clear. And inherently, cost worries are economic issues.

But the connection between economics and health care goes well beyond this logical argument—you can actually see the two linked in polls. Take a look at the graphs below (click both to enlarge them), from a Kaiser Family Foundation report published last month. Since 2004, Kaiser has been asking respondents how worried they are about a set of potential problems. The first set of bars shows that flagging incomes and high health care costs are the two major concerns that people say they are “very worried” about. This makes sense: the less confident you are about your purchasing power, the more worried you’ll be about buying essentials like health coverage.

Over time, Kaiser poll data confirms the same theme.  Below is a graph of the two worries that top the 2007 bar chart, with data from 2004 (when Kaiser started doing these surveys) to the newest iteration in December of last year.

Once again, economic insecurity and worries about health care costs travel together. And in the past year, as the price of fuel, gasoline and food have climbed, people have become even more worried that their pay-checks aren’t keeping up with inflation. The necessities of life—including health care—are all becoming more expensive.

This all seems painfully obvious, but it’s something that we miss when polls impose artificial divisions amongst issues by using crude categories like “the economy” and “health care.” Think about how little it tells you if people are more worried about their economic security than their ability to afford health insurance, or vice versa. Anyone who feels like they can’t afford the necessities is going to be worried about paying for health care; anyone who’s worried about paying for health care is worried about their economic security. It’s the chicken and the egg.

Obviously polls have to compartmentalize complex issues for practical reasons. But the economy and health care are not dueling issues. Worries about income and health care costs go hand in hand, not head to head. And they make for a double-whammy that is most definitely on the minds of voters. 

So, to second Maggie’s sentiment: let’s understand that health care is an economic issue.

Indeed, cost containment lies at the very heart of health care reform. In recent years, the cost of health care has been rising two or three times faster than median wage increases. Unless we can break that spiral, more and more middle-class Americans won’t be able to afford health care. And we certainly won’t be able to stretch the blanket to cover everyone. If health care spending continues to climb at its current pace, the nation’s health care bill will swell by more than 25 percent in the next four years—without even addressing the problem of the uninsured.

Reformers should know that framing health care reform as economic progress—and not just as medical progress—is important and likely to be effective. And political candidates should realize that just because people are worried about their incomes, it doesn’t mean that health care is receding from the public agenda—just the opposite, in fact.

In the days ahead, Maggie is going to be talking more about the “basics” of Health care spending: where our health care dollars go, and where cuts can be made without diluting the quality of care. Another example of how economics and health care go together.

Comments

[Niko Karvounis]

Hi Ryan, good catch. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research and Education Trust/USA Today report, the cost of health care premiums rose by 6.6% in 2007 and wages increased by 3.7%. This is more equitable rise than in 2006, when the WSJ reported that the average family premium rose 7.7%, compared with a 3.8% rise in wages

The broader picture is even worse. The Kaiser report, citing numbers from CongressDaily, notes that since 2001, premiums for family coverage have increased 78%, while wages have gone up 19%.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=47450
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115927289880274192.html

Hope this helps.

[Ryan]

"In recent years, the cost of health care has been rising two or three times faster than median wage increases." Source, please.

[toronto term life]

The general outlook of these schemas is really disappointing. That`s true that in America there is a few people who can afford to have Life insurance in Toronto but the majority can`t afford even to have health insurance. The common perception claims that the health care system is highly developed in this country but comparing to other countries America stands in the 38th place. Unfortunately this was proved by several surveys.