Bizarre Poll Results

Bizarre Poll Results

Dr. John Lott points to some rather astonishing poll numbers that asked, "How satisfied are you with your health care?"

A survey conducted jointly by the Kaiser Family Foundation, ABC News and USA Today, released in October 2006, found that 89 percent of Americans were satisfied with their own personal medical care, but only 44 percent were satisfied with the overall quality of the American medical system.

...

Uninsured Americans, not surprisingly, are not as satisfied as people who have insurance. Nonetheless, 70 percent of the uninsured who indicated their level of satisfaction said they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their health care, and only 17.5 percent said they were "very dissatisfied."

Your first reaction is probably, "What? They don't have health insurance! How satisfied can they be? Don't they realize what a tragedy they are experiencing?" But something to think about:

1. A lot of the uninsured are young people--who generally don't get sick. What's the biggest risk for many of them? An automobile accident--and their car insurance (or someone else's) will end up covering the injuries.

2. You don't have health insurance? That doesn't mean that you don't have health care. Effectively every hospital in the U.S., because of the Hill-Burton Act of 1946, is required to provide emergency room care, and even a certain level of non-ER care for the indigent. This is a lousy way to provide medical care, because it is expensive--but it does mean that in a real crisis, you will get medical care in this country. You may end up with a huge bill--but if you are as poor as most of the uninsured, what does it matter? You can't get blood out of a stone, and most hospitals eventually give up on that.

Now, there's a good argument for why the uninsured should be insured--but it as much for the benefit of those suffering from cost-shifting as it for the poor, who are clearly pretty satisfied with the medical care that they get.

UPDATE: A reader informs me:

Indeed. Any Providence Health system institution will take you without cost if you can't afford it; that's the mission of the religious sisters running it.

My wife is a physician and, years ago, volunteered at various free clinics in the Portland area. She finally gave up. She basically burned out: she generally cared more about her patients' health than they did themselves. Despite access to physicians, diagnostic tests, and medicine at no charge, a large percentage of her patients couldn't be bothered to show up for their appointments even if she explicitly warned them, "This is important and potentially life-threatening."

There's no substitute for individual responsibility.