Healthcare United

Standing Together For Quality Care Healthcare United is a new, national movement of nurses and healthcare workers uniting our voices to heal our broken healthcare system.
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    Healthcare United is gathering in Salem to discuss plans for getting our fellow healthcare workers to the polls in November. Find out more.

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  • Missouri

    The St. Louis chapter of Healthcare United is meeting on Saturday, September 6th. Join Us.

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“Tell The Candidates” Survey Results

Overview
About the Study
Our Findings

Healthcare System Concerns Among Peers
Presidential Candidate Priorities On Healthcare
Healthcare Reform Priorities
Healthcare Advocacy

How to Get Involved 

Overview

Beginning in March, Healthcare United surveyed a total of approximately 8,300 doctors, nurses and caregivers in order to determine their concerns and priorities for our nation’s healthcare system.  This bipartisan group was extremely diverse, consisting of participants of nearly all income levels, professions, genders and races.

Statistically significant results show that healthcare professionals and their colleagues are concerned with the state of the healthcare system (95.70%). However, the participants did not believe that the 2008 presidential candidates share their concerns, with 84.99% stating that the candidates do not talk enough about healthcare reform. 

Most importantly, the study found that nearly 9 in 10 doctors, nurses and caregivers would be willing to advocate on behalf of the changes that they’d like to see implemented, but are unsure of how to do so.

Based on these results, Healthcare United can conclude that doctors, nurses and caregivers desire systematical change in healthcare for both their patients and their own families, and are willing to advocate in order to make these changes possible in any way possible -- but do not have an outlet for such advocacy.

These results indicate a strong rationale for Healthcare United and our effort to mobilize doctors, nurses and caregivers to bring real change to healthcare both during and beyond this historic election. 

About The Study (Methodology)

From March to June 2008, Healthcare United surveyed a total of approximately 8,300 doctors, nurses and caregivers in order to determine their concerns and priorities for our nation’s healthcare system.  Users were asked to fill out an online survey form and submit it to Healthcare United.

Our Findings (Results)

Due to the large number of those surveyed, our results can be deemed statistically significant, with a margin of error (MoE) of plus or minus 1.08 at the 95% confidence level.

1. Healthcare System Concerns Among Peers

The first goal in our study was to determine the level of concern among healthcare workers.  We asked our participants if they believed whether or not they and their colleagues were concerned with the current state of the healthcare system.

Survey Concern

The overwhelming majority -- 67.76% of those surveyed (5,606 participants) -- said that they and their colleagues were very concerned about the current healthcare system, as compared to only 0.63% of those who said that they were not at all concerned with the healthcare system (52 participants).  In total, 95.70% of those surveyed (7,916 participants) fell within the “concerned” spectrum, whereas only 4.30% of those surveyed (409 participants) fell in the “not concerned” spectrum -- meaning that over 19 out of 20 doctors, nurses and caregivers are either somewhat concerned or very concerned about the state of the system that they work in. 

 

2. Presidential Candidate Priorities on Healthcare

We then asked our participants of they believe that the presidential candidates share the same concerns as they do, and if the participants believe the candidates are talking about healthcare issues enough.

Candidates

The vast majority -- 84.99% of those surveyed (6,995 participants), nearly 17 our of 20 doctors, nurses and caregivers -- believe that the candidates are not focusing enough on issues within our healthcare system.  This indicates that while healthcare workers believe their friends and co-workers are concerned, they do not believe the the presidential candidates use enough language or have enough proposals that would address these concerns.

 

3. Healthcare Reform Priorities

We then inquired as to which elements of healthcare reform they’d like to see addressed the most, based on their concerns.  We asked those surveyed to select a total of three (3) priorities that they had in healthcare reform, for a total of 24,189 responses.

Priorities

The top three priorities were:
1. Lowering Insurance Costs (24%)
2. Lowering Prescription Prices (24%)
3. Lowering General Costs (23%)

4. Healthcare Advocacy

Finally, we asked the participants if they’d be willing to advocate on behalf of the changes that they’d like to see within the system.

Advocate

Nearly 9 out of 10 doctors, nurses and caregivers -- 88.91% of those surveyed (7186 participants) -- said they would be willing to advocate on behalf of these changes.  If we generalize this to the national population of healthcare professionals, this indicates an extremely populous group that is willing to be mobilized to make change.

How To Get Involved

In order to foster advocacy among doctors, nurses and caregivers, Healthcare United has set up field operations in all of the so-called “swing states” for the upcoming 2008 Presidential Election.  You can get involved by:

1. Visiting our Healthcare United Action Center;
2. Visiting your state’s Healthcare United webpage;
3. Reading our blog to keep up with the latest Healthcare United activities.