70% of voters have strong appetite for cutting federal health spending

Approximately 70 percent of voters believe reining in high healthcare costs should be a top post-election priority, according to an online survey of 1,200 conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

With the topic of deficit reduction heating up at the federal level and healthcare costs a growing burden for many consumers, voters pinpointed a variety of areas where they believe the federal government should begin trimming healthcare costs.

Asked what the government’s healthcare priorities should be, the most popular responses included reducing the cost of care (69 percent), reducing the government’s role in healthcare (38 percent), improving healthcare (29 percent) and promoting prevention and public health (25 percent). Asked how the federal government should reduce federal healthcare spending, the most popular responses included reducing payments to providers (50 percent), reducing investments in health IT (42 percent), reducing spending on public health (32 percent) and raising the Medicare eligibility age for seniors (29 percent).

Survey participants were more likely to answer questions regarding healthcare spending one way or the other based on their sex and race. For instance, men were more likely than women to express desire for government’s reduced role in healthcare by a margin of 41 percent to 35 percent, and 29 percent of black participants indicated an appetite for more healthcare education compared to just 14 percent of white voters and 11 percent of Hispanic voters.

Researchers noted that responses were sometimes contradictory. While health IT has the potential to reduce healthcare costs, increase quality and improve access, there was a strong desire for reducing investments in health IT. “Early studies suggest that real-time electronic data can help improve patient compliance, reduce medical errors and speed accurate diagnoses,” the New York City-based consulting firm’s November report read. “However voters do not seem to have gotten that message. Government and industry should consider partnering to better communicate the long-term benefits of health IT.”

Based on the results, researchers suggested that providers respond to four cues from consumers to lower cost structures, provide consumer education, invest in prevention and communicate the value of research and development.

“As consumers pay more and more of their own healthcare costs, their influence will continue to grow,” the report concluded. “The survey results reinforce the notion that the health sector must position itself to cater more to cost-conscious consumers who have their own ideas around how the healthcare system should operate.”