The Politics of Health Care

Abstract

This article reports the survey results from attendees at a large US health-care conference. Conference attendees were polled on a number of healthcare reform issues along with some basic demographic information. Few significant differences were found based on respondents’ gender, or surprisingly even whether they were employed in the health-care industry. Rather, the most striking differences occurred along political party lines: Democrats supported the allocation of tax dollars to health-care programs (for example, supporting the uninsured), whereas Republicans did not seek solutions through tax increases. These differences hold for both healthcare industry insiders and consumers of health care, which portends significant challenges in this industry and potential opportunities for the health-care marketer. We replicated our findings on a national random sample, wherein respondents were solicited without association with any health-care conference or event.

Keywords: health-care costs, trade-offs, political party, conjoint analysis