The Nation - News from March 7, 1988

Two out of three Americans say they would favor national health insurance, but most are not willing to pay much for it, a survey has found. Sixty-eight percent of adult Americans questioned late last year said they favored a tax-funded national health insurance program that would guarantee as much health care as people need, the study said. But only 28% said they would be willing to spend more than $25 a year in higher taxes or insurance premiums to cover program costs, said the survey, which appears in this month’s issue of Health Management Quarterly magazine. On the quality of American health care, 56% said they thought it had improved during the last five years.