A Siena Research poll found that 74 percent of New Yorkers believe the health-care system is broken and in need of reform.
The poll also found that 35 percent of New Yorkers support a government proposed health-care plan, with 26 percent opposing the plan and 39 percent on the fence about it.
The results were released by the Siena Research Institute on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Those contacted by pollsters were asked to consider how the health-care plan the government is currently considering would affect private business, as well as the likelihood of increased efficiencies, the impact it could have on seniors and the affordability and quality of health care such a plan could bring.
Those questions included whether one believed the quality of health care would go down with a government plan (55 percent agreed and 32 percent disagreed) and whether seniors would receive inferior care under a government-run plan.
What we found overall is that New Yorkers are seriously concerned about the quality of health care going down, said Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute.
Levy said many people contacted also wondered whether a government plan could truly manage and deliver care to the same degree of efficiency that business people can.
The survey was conducted by random telephone calls to 538 New York residents over the age of 18. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 4 points.
`We were interested in determining how big of a problem is it to New Yorkers and how seriously a variety of issues have been affecting New York households,` said Levy.
The questions that dealt with health-care reform were coupled with other questions about New York households and financial concerns.
Results showed that one out of every seven households in New York has seen a family member laid off, or their work slowed, over the past six months, and that has mostly occurred in lower income households.
The results also showed that 70 percent of New York households say food is having a serious or very serious impact on the family budget, while 52 percent say they feel pressure about gasoline prices going up, 49 percent are impacted by health-care costs and 78 percent of households are concerned about energy costs this coming winter.
As far as saving money, the results showed that fewer than 40 percent of New Yorkers have been able to save any money for retirement, and 41 percent have a savings account with enough money in it to pay all household expenses for six months.
Sixty one percent of residents are concerned about their ability to continue to exist at their current standard of living, and 66 percent say they spend more time now than ever worrying about money.
Based on the results of all questions, Levy said the Siena Research Institute is able to cluster people in groups based on their thoughts and beliefs.
`About 35 percent of people say the health-care system is broken, it needs to be fixed, and they tend to support the new proposal overall. So about 35 percent you can identify as supporters of reform,` he said. `Twenty six percent believe the system is not broken, it’s OK [and] they don’t trust government. Forty percent of people really are in the middle. Essentially those people are saying, ‘I think the health-care system needs to be reformed, but I need to know how it’s going to be done, and how it’s going to affect me. I need more information. I don’t know what you guys are talking about right now. Stop yelling at each other and tell me.’`
Most importantly, Levy said, these results show that while not every New Yorker may be in support of a government-run health-care plan, overwhelmingly, New Yorkers are at least knowledgeable about what is going on in the debates.
`To me that’s sort of the takeaway public opinion in this case,` he said. `This is an important matter, this matters to every single person and we deserve a wide open very, very careful methodical debate rather than calling each other names.`
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