GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- While the vast majority of Americans respond favorably to the proposal that Congress pass a patient's bill of rights, it appears as though most Americans are unaware of what such a proposal entails. Many have a sense that it would provide individuals with more control over their health care decisions, but that general sense is captured in the title of the bill itself. The crux of both the Republican and Democratic versions is that individuals would be granted rights to hold their health care organizations accountable for the quality of health care provided, by giving patients the right to sue their HMOs in court. But this focus of the legislative proposals now being considered by Congress does not seem to be widely understood by the general public.
Here are some major findings of Gallup polls over the past two months:
- Americans support the concept of a patient's bill of rights.In two separate polls, Gallup has found better than five-to-one support for Congress' passing a patient's bill of rights.
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- In a poll at the end of June, respondents expressed support by 58% to 11%.
- In a July 10-11 Gallup poll, they expressed support by 71% to 14%.
- In the earlier poll, respondents were first asked how much they had heard about the issue, with more than six in 10 indicating they had not paid close attention to it. Then, when respondents were asked whether they would favor or oppose Congress' passing a patient's bill of rights, 31% said they had no opinion -- mostly those who had just said they had not heard of the issue in the first place. In the July poll, however, there was no question about how much attention people had been paying to the issue, and when respondents were asked if they would favor or oppose a patient's bill of rights, only 15% had no opinion and 71% said they supported it.
- These results suggest that the title, "a patient's bill of rights," has a great deal of appeal to the public, eliciting support even from people who have no information about the legislation.
- It should also be noted that despite the differences between the two polls in the number willing to give an opinion, the ratio of support to opposition -- five to one -- is about the same.
- Americans rate the patient's bill of rights as a relatively important issue.According to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in early June, just over three-quarters of Americans, 77%, say that it is extremely or very important for Congress and the president to deal with the issue of a patient's bill of rights in the coming year. These results are consistent with Gallup findings over the past couple of years that health care is one of the most important issues to the American public.
- Most Americans have not followed the issue very closely.A Gallup poll at the end of June showed that only 36% of Americans have followed the issue closely -- 7% "very" closely, and another 29% "somewhat" closely. These results place the patient's bill of rights debate well below the average of other public policy issues in public attentiveness. In the same poll, for example, 65% of Americans said they were closely following the news about the Ford and Firestone controversy, and 49% were closely following President Bush's energy plan.
- Few Americans know that the crux of the patient's bill of rights proposals is the ability to take legal action against HMOs.While the patient's bill of rights proposals by both Republicans and Democrats give individuals the right to sue their HMOs for damages, most Americans do not seem to be aware of this point. In the Gallup poll at the end of June, respondents were asked to indicate in their own words what they thought a patient's bill of rights entailed. Only 12% responded that it would give patients the right to take legal action against their health care providers, and another 2% mentioned that it would hold doctors/insurance companies more accountable. Most of the responses focused on general "rights" of patients, as well as their right to choose their own doctor and hospital, their guarantee of health care, and protection of patients' confidentiality -- none of which are the specific purposes of the legislation currently being considered.
- Most Americans also are generally unaware of the differences between Republicans and Democrats on the issue.Consistent with the fact that few Americans have been following the issue, even fewer indicated they have a good understanding of the differences between two versions of the patient's bill of rights that were before the Senate -- one sponsored mostly by Republicans, although with some Democratic support, and the other sponsored mostly by Democrats, although with some Republican support. Just 5% of Americans indicated in the Gallup poll at the end of June that they knew "a lot" about the differences between the two proposals, while another 23% said they knew "a little" about the differences. More than seven in 10 indicated they were not aware of such differences.
- Still, more Americans trust the Democrats than the Republicans on the issue.Despite their lack of knowledge about the issue, and about the differences between the Republican and Democratic proposals, more Americans express confidence in the Democrats than in the Republicans to deal with the issue.
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- In the early June CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, 49% of Americans said they had more confidence in the Senate Democrats than in President Bush to deal with the issue, while 34% expressed more confidence in Bush. Seventeen percent had no opinion one way or the other.
- In the Gallup poll at the end of June, respondents were asked whether they would be more likely to trust the Republicans' or the Democrats' approach to a patient's bill of rights "even if you don't know all of the details." By a margin of 44% to 34%, Americans chose the Democrats. Another 22% expressed no preference on the issue.
- Older Americans, Democrats express greater support for patient's bill of rights.Older Americans are more likely than younger groups to have followed the issue closely and to support congressional enactment of such legislation. Similarly, Democrats and independents are more likely than Republicans to support such legislation. Nevertheless, all major subgroups of Americans express strong majority support for Congress' passing a patient's bill of rights.
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- In the July poll, respondents under the age of 30 express support for a patient's bill of rights by 62% to 18%, while people 30 and over support such legislation by 73% to 12%. In the late June poll, the pattern was similar: Young people supported a patient's bill of rights by 49% to 9%, while older Americans supported it by 60% to 12%.
- In the July poll, Republicans express support for a patient's bill of rights by 65% to 20%, compared with 72% to 10% among independents, and 75% to 12% among Democrats. In the late June poll, 51% of Republicans supported such legislation, and 14% opposed it. By contrast, independents supported a patient's bill of rights by 54% to 10%, and Democrats by 67% to 10%.
Survey Methods
Results reported here are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults, aged 18+, in each of three separate polls: conducted June 6-8, 2001; June 28-July 1, 2001; and July 10-11, 2001. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points.
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
