Americans looking more closely at health-care reform

Health care is on the minds of most Americans today. And according to Euro RSCG Worldwide's Spring 2010 "U.S. Mind and Mood Report," 67.6 percent of men and 61.5 percent of women are more interested in the subject than they were during the previous 12 to 18 months.

The findings come from a national online survey of 386 adults about a raft of social and political issues that was commissioned by global integrated marketing communications agency Euro RSCG Worldwide in February 2010. MicroDialogue collected and analyzed the data. A second survey asked the same questions of 386 Connecticut residents.

Right now, the health-care bill is public issue No. 1. It's huge and complex, and few Americans have been able or willing to study every aspect of it. Media coverage over the past year has shown more confusion than clarity. Opponents of the legislation raised the specter of "death panels." Seniors were seen demanding that the government keep its hands off their Medicare, despite the fact that it's a government-run program.

Americans have little doubt that things are wrong in the country and need fixing; in Euro's survey, disapproval and negative expectations outweighed approval and optimism. What's not clear, however, is how they want the problems to be fixed. Respondents' angles on the health-care issue reveal this lack of clarity.

"Americans are looking more closely and more critically than ever at the public issues that affect them, and no issue is more pressing -- or confusing -- than health-care reform," said Donna Murphy, worldwide managing partner of Euro RSCG Life, the health-focused communications network of Euro RSCG Worldwide. "Clarity will become more apparent now that we are entering a brave new world in the health-care space, as reforms begin to be realized and new leaders emerge as a consequence of the widespread reforms."

On one hand, in the Euro survey, almost half overall (44.9 percent) agreed with the statement "The proposed health-care reform is too socialist for my liking," and even higher percentages of people age 60 to 64, and those over 65, agreed (50.0 percent and 53.8 percent). Perhaps not surprisingly, 82 percent of self-identified Republicans agreed with the statement, as did 46.5 percent of Independents -- and indeed 18.6 percent of Democrats.

On the other hand, even more respondents agreed with the assertion that "Big corporations and lobbies have hijacked the proposed health-care reform." Overall, 61.7 percent agreed, with even higher percentages of 60-to-64s and over-65s agreeing (77.3 percent and 73.1 percent). This perception indicates the sort of anti-business thinking often associated with Democrats, and 60.5 percent of self-identified Democrats did agree with it -- but so did 61.3 percent of Republicans and 70.3 percent of Independents.

Partisan no longer just means being a Democrat or Republican. It could mean being anti-establishment or anti-corporate or anti-government. Euro RSCG Worldwide's "Mind and Mood" survey and resultant white paper looks at the feelings and contradictions behind those views.