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Greater Optimism About U.S. Health System Coverage, Costs Americans remain highly satisfied with own care by Jeffrey M. Jones
PRINCETON, NJ -- As Congress debates a possible major expansion of health insurance in the United States, Gallup finds 38% of Americans rating healthcare coverage in this country as excellent or good, the highest (by eight percentage points) in the nine-year history of this question, and 12 points above last year's level.
Most of the change since last year involves a shift in Americans' ratings of healthcare coverage from "only fair" to "excellent" or "good." Since last year, the percentage rating healthcare coverage as only fair has declined by 10 points, while the percentage rating it poor has changed little.
It is unclear based on the overall data whether this shift could be due to a greater appreciation for the current system among those who think it is threatened by the proposed changes, or perhaps an anticipation of better days ahead from those who support the changes. The results by party do not provide any clues as to which is the more plausible explanation, as all party groups rate U.S. health coverage more positively this year than last year.
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"Even with their improved assessments of certain aspects of the U.S. healthcare system, Americans continue to give much more positive reviews of their own healthcare in those same respects."