When Americans say that their personal healthcare costs will increase if a new reform law is passed, it could mean that these individuals perceive that they will pay doctors, hospitals, and providers more money, or that they will be paying more for all Americans’ healthcare indirectly, through higher taxes. Whatever the case, the data show that a third of Americans believe their costs will go up in some way if healthcare reform is passed, almost twice as many as say their personal costs will go down.
Bottom Line
These results do not coalesce into a terribly optimistic picture of Americans’ views of the perceived impact of healthcare reform:
Whether the focus is access to healthcare or the quality of care, less than a majority of Americans are convinced that healthcare reform will be beneficial to either the country or to their own personal situations.
Americans are less likely to believe healthcare reform will result in improvements to themselves personally than to the national healthcare situation.
Americans believe that healthcare reform will increase costs rather than lower them, both nationally and for themselves.





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