Country: United States
Survey Organization: Harris Interactive, Inc.
Field Date: March 2, 2009–March 31, 2009
Sample: Peer-nominated experts in health care policy, finance, and delivery; select members of the Modern Healthcare database
Sample Size: 214
Interview Method: Online/E-mail
Read an analysis of the findings in a
Data Brief
. Also available are two related commentaries,
Uniquely American Solution
by Karen Ignagni, CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans, and
Change the Microenvironment
by Francis J. Crosson, senior fellow at the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy
Leaders in health care and health care policy believe the U.S. must rein in the growth of health spending, and most believe it is possible over the next 10 years to maintain the current proportion of gross domestic product devoted to health care, the latest Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey finds. Nearly all respondents (96%) agreed that spending must slow, and large majorities expressed support for a range of strategies to reduce costs, including many of those outlined in President Obama’s budget blueprint. Large majorities of opinion leaders support such cost-reduction strategies as replacing Medicare's "sustainable growth rate" mechanism with fundamental provider payment reform, introducing competitive bidding for durable medical equipment, and negotiating pharmaceutical drug prices. Opinion leaders also favor promoting growth of integrated delivery systems, raising payments for primary care services and medical homes, and establishing a center for comparative effectiveness.
Methodology
This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of The Commonwealth Fund among 214 opinion leaders in health policy and innovators in health care delivery and finance within the United States between March 2, 2009, and March 31, 2009. Harris Interactive sent out individual e-mail invitations to the entire panel containing a password-protected link and a total of four reminder emails were sent to those who had not responded. No weighting was applied to these results.