Attitudes toward Health Insurance among Adults AGE 18 and Over. Medical Expeenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Research Findings No. 87

摘要

Health insurance is viewed by policymakers and others concerned with the cost and quality of medical care as important for access to care and protection against the risk of costly and unforeseen medical events. Attitudes among consumers toward the need for and cost of health insurance may impact the extent to which the population is covered. The 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES) and the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) each contained questions that asked adults age 18 and over whether they strongly agreed, agreed, were uncertain, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with each of the following statements: Im healthy enough that I really dont need health insurance and Health insurance is not worth the money it costs. This Statistical Brief examines differences in the extent to which persons agreed with these statements in 2002 versus 1987, as well as the variation in agreement with these attitudes in 2002 by selected demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (age, race/ ethnicity, sex, education, family income, and insurance status for adults under 65). Strongly agreed and agreed responses were combined into an agreed category while strongly disagreed and disagreed responses were combined into a disagreed category. All differences between estimates discussed in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better.