Satisfaction with Own Health Insurance Remarkably Stable

Most people in the United States continue to give their own insurance good marks, whether employer-provided, individually purchased, Medicare or Medicaid

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—March 29, 2004—People who follow or who are closely involved with the health insurance industry are aware of many changes. Employers are introducing new types of plans. Employees are being asked to pick up more of their own costs. The Medicare Reform bill has passed but has not been implemented. Consultants preach the virtues of so-called consumer-driven health plans. States make changes in their Medicaid plans. However, if consumer attitudes to health insurance were to be viewed as evidence, you would be forgiven for thinking that nothing much is changing.

For the fifth time in six years, Harris Interactive has asked the insured public to rate their own insurance plans. Two thirds of them continue to give their plans an A or a B, with only 10% giving them a D or an F. Substantial but not overwhelming majorities continue to say that they would recommend their own health plans to family members who are basically healthy (76%) or who have a serious or chronic illness (68%).

Of course, these results could be much better with many more As and fewer Cs, Ds and Fs, and fewer people saying they would not recommend their own plans. But the big picture is that most people rate their health insurance positively and only a third or less, depending on the question, give their health insurance negative marks.

This remarkable stability of public satisfaction, with most people being satisfied with their own insurance, stands in stark contrast to the very negative views many people have of the health insurance industry and managed care (see The Harris Poll^® #31, May 28, 2003), which have increased greatly over the same six years.

This reinforces the view which we have expressed before that the greatly increased hostility to managed care and the health insurance industry was mainly driven by the media, and by physician-patient conversations, rather than by personal experience.

Base: Adults Insured by Employers or Unions

Base: Insured Adults

In general, satisfaction levels have been remarkably stable. The main points to note are:

• The very modest changes relating to employer-provided insurance suggest a possible increase in satisfaction with those saying they would not recommend their plans marginally lower now than in 2001 or 2002.
  
• This year’s survey produced slightly higher levels of dissatisfaction with Medicare: those giving the programs a C, D or F rose from 26% to 29%, and those who would not recommend Medicare also increased modestly.
  
• Dissatisfaction with Medicaid has increased to some extent with more people now saying they would not recommend it to friends or family members who have serious or chronic illnesses (33%).

There are now only modest differences in the levels of dissatisfaction with employer-provided, privately purchased insurance and Medicare programs. However, Medicaid beneficiaries are more likely to be dissatisfied, with 36% of them rating Medicaid D, E or F, 27% not recommending Medicaid to healthy friends and family and 33% not recommending it to those who have serious or chronic illnesses.

"I want to know how you rate your current/most recent health plan, thinking about all of your

experiences with that plan, would you give it a grade of A, B, C, D, OR F?"

Base: Insured Adults

"I want to know how you rate your current/most recent health plan, thinking about all of your

experiences with that plan, would you give it a grade of A, B, C, D, OR F?"

Base: Insured Adults

"I want to know how you rate your current/most recent health plan, thinking about all of your

experiences with that plan, would you give it a grade of A, B, C, D, OR F?"

Base: Adults Insured by Employers or Unions

"Would you definitely, probably, probably not or definitely not recommend your health care plan

to a family member or friend who is basically healthy?"

Base: Insured Adults

"Would you definitely, probably, probably not or definitely not recommend your health care

plan to a family member or friend who is basically healthy?"

Base: Adults Insured by Employers or Unions

"Would you definitely, probably, probably not or definitely not recommend your health care

plan to a family member or friend who has a serious or chronic illness?"

Base: Insured Adults

"Would you definitely, probably, probably not or definitely not recommend your health care

plan to a family member or friend who has a serious or chronic illness?"

Base: Adults Insured by Employers or Unions

Downloadable PDFs of the Harris Interactive Health Care News are available at http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters_healthcare.asp

This Harris Interactive survey was conducted by telephone within the United States between February 9 and 16, 2004, among a sample of 911 insured adults, aged 18 and over. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus three percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population who are insured had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

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Q560, Q565, Q570

Harris Interactive (www.harrisinteractive.com) is a worldwide market research and consulting firm best known for The Harris Poll^®, and for pioneering the Internet method to conduct scientifically accurate market research. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, Harris Interactive combines proprietary methodologies and technology with expertise in predictive, custom and strategic research. The Company conducts international research from its U.S. offices and through wholly owned subsidiaries—London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com), Paris-based Novatris and Tokyo-based Harris Interactive Japan—as well as through the Harris Interactive Global Network of independent market- and opinion-research firms. EOE M/F/D/V

To become a member of the Harris Poll Online^SM and be invited to participate in future online surveys, visit www.harrispollonline.com.

Nancy Wong
585-214-7316
nwong@harrisinteractive.com