What Do Americans Know about Entitlements?

Health Affairs

Volumn 16, Issue 5, 1997, Pages 111-116

  Blendon, Robert J ^b   Benson, John M ^b   Brodie, Mollyann ^a   Brossard, Mario ^b   Altman, Drew E ^b   Morin, Richard ^b  

^a HENRY J KAISER FAMILY FOUNDATION   (United States)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGED; ARTICLE; ECONOMICS; FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT; HUMAN; MEDICARE; PUBLIC OPINION; QUESTIONNAIRE; SOCIAL SECURITY; UNITED STATES;

AGED; BANKRUPTCY; HUMANS; MEDICARE; PUBLIC OPINION; QUESTIONNAIRES; SOCIAL SECURITY; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0346720421     PISSN: 02782715     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.16.5.111     Document Type: Article

References (10)

1. R.J. Blenden et al., "The Public's View of the Future of Medicare," Journal of the American Medical Association (22/29 November 1995): 1645-1648; "Social Security: American Icon," Public Perspective (February/March 1995): 21-26; and Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek Poll (Storrs, Conn.: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, 9 January 1997).
2. R.J. Blenden et al., "The Public's View of the Future of Medicare," Journal of the American Medical Association (22/29 November 1995): 1645-1648; "Social Security: American Icon," Public Perspective (February/March 1995): 21-26; and Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek Poll (Storrs, Conn.: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, 9 January 1997).
3. R.J. Blenden et al., "The Public's View of the Future of Medicare," Journal of the American Medical Association (22/29 November 1995): 1645-1648; "Social Security: American Icon," Public Perspective (February/March 1995): 21-26; and Princeton Survey Research Associates/Newsweek Poll (Storrs, Conn.: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, 9 January 1997).
4. All public opinion surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. For results based on a sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to random sampling could be approximately plus or minus 3 percent. Sources of nonsampling error include nonresponse bias, as well as question wording and ordering effects. These latter factors are difficult to measure.
5. Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform: Final Report to the President (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1995), 97-99.
6. Congressional Budget Office, Reducing the Deficit: Spending and Revenue Options, August 1996 (Online version) (Washington: CBO, 1996), Table 3-4.
7. R.J. Blendon et al., "Bridging the Gap between Expert and Public Views on Health Care Reform," Journal of the American Medical Association (19 May 1993): 2573-2578.
8. R.J. Blendon et al., "The Public and the Welfare Reform Debate," Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (October 1995): 1065-1069.
9. Previous studies have shown that Americans lack a great deal of knowledge about how the federal government and the political system function. See R.J. Blendon et al., "Changing Attitudes in America," in Why Americans Mistrust Government, ed. J.S. Nye Jr., P.D. Zelikow, and D.C. King (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, forthcoming). This may in turn lead to a lack of public attention to and participation in policy debates. However, the importance of the major entitlements to millions of Americans will likely lead to considerable public interest.
10. R.J. Blendon et al., "Voters and Health Care in the 1996 Election," Journal of the American Medical Association (16 April 1997): 1253-1258.