Many New Jersey Residents Concerned About Health Care, Survey Shows

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 09 Oct 2007 - 8:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

About 50% of New Jersey's residents said they believe "fundamental changes are needed" for the state's health care system, and about 48% said they would pay $500 annually in additional taxes for universal health coverage, according to a Rutgers University survey released Wednesday, the Bergen Record reports. The survey of 1,100 residents was conducted over the summer and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assess the public's concerns and support for possible solutions. The poll has margin of error of three percentage-points. According to the survey, the cost of health care ranked second as the issue residents were "very worried" about, behind incomes not keeping pace with the cost of living. In addition, the survey found:

• 37% of residents are "very worried" about their ability to afford health coverage;
  
  
• 29% of residents are concerned about losing their health coverage;
  
  
• One in three residents believes the state needs to "completely rebuild" its health care system;
  
  
• 88% of residents said large companies should help their employees with coverage premiums; and
  
  
• 83% of residents support expanding programs that provide health coverage to low-income residents, such as Medicaid and NJ Family Care (Layton, Bergen Record, 10/4).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations