Twenty members and friends of the Prince William Area Commission on Aging convened Tuesday September 22, for the Center's fourth National Issues Forum on health care, this time at the Prince William Senior Citizens Center in Manassas.
Two-thirds of the participants afterward completed a survey, in which they named the most important issues to them, and the trade-offs they would accept in combination with their preferred outcome.
The respondents were almost exclusively concerned with controlling the rising cost of health care. Tort reform, more effective denial of unpaid care to undocumented immigrants, reform and audit of existing government programs and the minimization of government's role in health care were the favored means to bring costs under control.
The focus of this survey research is to gauge not just the character of views held, but the depth of those opinions. For example, almost all of the survey respondents reported that they have moved beyond a basic awareness of the issues involved in health care reform. However, only a few characterized themselves as fully grasping the consequences of their preferences and ready to accept the necessary trade-offs. On average the respondents were two-thirds of the way to committing themselves. At this stage, most of them are weighing the pros, cons and trade-offs involved in health care reform.
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