A recent survey by the Harvard School of Public Health and Harris Interactive, as part of their ongoing series, Debating Health: Election 2008, finds that Americans are generally split on the issue of whether the United States has the best healthcare system in the world (45 percent believe the U.S. system is the best; 39 percent believe other countries have better systems; 15 percent don’t know or refused to answer) and that there is a significant divide along party lines. Nearly seven out of 10 Republicans (68 percent) believe the U.S. healthcare system is the best in the world, compared with just 32 percent of Democrats and 40 percent of Independents who feel the same way. The telephone survey of 1,026 respondents was conducted among a nationwide cross-section of adults age 18 and over.
How might this issue affect how Americans vote in the upcoming presidential election? When asked if they would be more likely to support or oppose a presidential candidate who advocates making the U.S. healthcare system more like health systems in other countries--specifically Canada, France, and Great Britain--only 19 percent of Republicans say they would be more likely to support such a candidate, compared with 56 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of Independents.
The view that the U.S. healthcare system lags other countries seems largely driven by the view that the United States is behind in controlling healthcare costs and providing affordable access to everyone. For example, 40 percent of Republicans believe the U.S healthcare system is better than other countries when it comes to making sure everyone can get affordable health care, compared with just 19 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of Independents. Read the survey results.
