HSPH Studies Support for Health Care Proposal

Public support for proposed health care legislation hinges more on how it promises to impact individuals, rather than on its potential effect on the nation as a whole, according to a study earlier this week from Harvard School of Public Health researchers.

Robert J. Blendon, a doctor and professor at the School of Public Health, said the paper showed the importance of individual interests in framing the national health care debate, adding that legislators have “lost track of the fact that the American people are discussing how this will affect them.”

For the study, researchers analyzed public opinion regarding former president Bill Clinton’s proposed 1994 health care reform—suggesting that the legislation’s failure was due to peoples’ doubts that it would have an overall positive effect on them individually, despite their recognition of the national need for health care reform.

The research shows that 15 years later, support for health care reform still fluctuates based on how certain aspects of the legislation are presented—specifically, the public option and the cost to the individual. This is happening despite the fact that a majority of the American public believes that the nation needs health care reform, according to polling data.

The recent study is the first paper to single out individual opinion as a factor in the health care debate, Blendon said, while most political scientists believe the public is most concerned with the national effects of reform.

Amitabh Chandra, a professor of public policy and director of health policy research at the Kennedy School, said that Blendon’s results were manifest in American politics, adding that it is “absolutely true” that public opinion regarding current health reform is based more on how it affects each person individually than impact on the nation. Chandra added that what the American public wants for themselves is often in the long run good for the United States.

John M. Benson, an author of the paper, advised that proponents of health care reform persuade the public by focusing on individual impact of legislation in keeping with the study.

Those debating health care “need to tell people somehow how the reforms will affect them so they can better judge what their opinion will be,” said Benson, who is a research associate at the School of Public Health. He encouraged both supporters and opponents of the bill to focus the discussion on aspects that will realistically influence the American public.