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Survey: Americans' Views On Health Of Nation

By James Edholm

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A recent Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey revealed some interesting and somewhat contradictory attitudes on the health of our country. On the face of it, it seems to be a poorly designed study, but I only saw the results as reported, not the entire survey.

Keep in mind that The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a prominent sponsor of National Public Radio, and the results of some prior studies tend to suggest that it is a supporter of top-down, government-centric solutions to problems, as is NPR. In addition to that, the poll was run by Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health … one hardly needs ask where their position on the political philosophy scale falls.

Also keep in mind that most studies can pretty well determine in advance what the results will be by the way that they phrase the questions they ask. For example, Rasmussen regularly reports on the public's attitude toward Obamacare, and a year-and-a-half after its passage, 53% of the public continue to want to repeal it. But this survey found that 52% of the public "favored a bigger government that provides more services for health, while 37 percent favored smaller government that provides fewer health services."

Hmmm. Who's right? Can't have both, can we?

Another factor I found fascinating was the fact that 45% of the public feels that America's state of health has worsened in the last five years (40% thought it was about the same and only 13% thought it had improved). Well, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta show many factors that suggest the opposite.

From 2000-2007 life expectancy at birth grew from 76.8 to 77.9 and at age 65 it grew from 17.6 years to 18.6 years.

Deaths from all causes, all ages dropped from 869 per 100,000 to 760.2

Heart disease deaths from 257.6 to 190.9,

Cancer from 199.6 to 178.4.

Serious improvements in health. There were declines and mixed messages, however.

While the percent of the population in only fair or poor health increased from 8.9% to 9.9%, over age 65 it decreased from 26.9 to 24.0.

Cancer was up (from 4.9 to 6.1% of the population), as was heart disease (from 10.9 to 11.8%)

In adults >20 diabetes has grown from 8.5 to 11.9%, hypertension from 28.9 to 32.6% and obesity from 29.9 to 33.7% - all troubling factors.

But high serum cholesterol has dropped from 17.7 to 14.6% of adults, and smoking has dropped from 23.2 to 20.6%, and aerobic/strengthening activity in adults has grown from 15.1 to 18.8%.

In other words, it's a mixed bag, not an all-negative picture. Undoubtedly, Americans' view of America's health is a function of their poor outlook toward the entire state of the world, given the unrelenting recession and lack of results or even action from Washington.

One point that I agree with the survey on is that "60% of the public believed that if the country spent more on efforts to improve health and avoid disease, it would save money in the long run." The difference is that I believe that instead of "the country" spending more on efforts to improve health and avoid disease, "the country's citizens" ought to spend more on efforts to improve health and avoid disease.

Our problem as a country is that we are growing to expect that everything will be "done for us" by the idiots in Washington. We're losing the self-reliance that was the hallmark of the American Dream.

Jim Edholm is President of Business Benefits Insurance (BBI), an employee benefits planning firm in Andover, MA. He has worked with employers for more than 25 years and can be contacted at (978) 474-4730, via his website (http://www.bbibenefits.com), or via e-mail (jedholm@bbibenefits.com ).

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