Poll Reveals Maryland Voters Bullish On Medical Research

Voters in Maryland strongly favor higher federal spending for health care and medical research, according to a recent poll commissioned by Research!America. The Alexandria, Va.- based nonprofit advocacy group sponsoring the study promotes the benefits of medical research. Seventy-six percent of those polled would increase federal spending on health care, while perennial favorites such as education and the environment fared slightly less well, with 72 percent and 68 percent, respectively, of respondents supporting increased spending in these areas. On another question, 80 percent of respondents would like to see more government spending for research aimed at "preventing and treating disease," the poll found. Also, while not constituting a majority, 47 percent of those questioned said that they think medical research important enough that they would pay higher taxes to fund it. "It's relatively easy to get support for a concept like medical research," says John Donnelly, vice president for public affairs at Research!America. "But that so many would accept higher taxes is important." National defense and space programs were losers in the poll, receiving calls for higher support from only 5 percent and 13 percent of those questioned, respectively. Welfare and social security did only a bit better, at 23 percent and 39 percent. The poll of 832 registered voters in Maryland was conducted for Research!America in January of this year by Survey Research Associates of the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore. Names of registered Democrats, Republicans, and independents were randomly selected from within census blocks, which were also randomly selected. The results of the survey are considered accurate to within 4 percentage points. According to Research!Ameri- ca, voters were the focus of the survey, rather than a larger pool of potential respondents, because voters are more likely to inform themselves on issues and to act on their views--by contacting their lawmakers, for example--than are other citizens. The poll was commissioned by the nonprofit group to serve as a baseline against which to gauge the success of the group's Maryland Model Program educational initiative, conducted April 21 to May 1. The multimedia effort was aimed at increasing the proportion of the public in Maryland that actively supports medical research. The group used print ads, TV spots, bumper stickers, and interviews with newspapers and on radio talk shows to get its message across. Former United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop worked with the group on a 90-second television message on the importance of medical research. Maryland was chosen as a proving ground for Research!America's education program for several reasons, says Donnelly. These included the presence of several important medical organizations, such as the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The success of the venture will be judged by the number of calls and letters Maryland's representatives in Congress receive in support of the issues important to Research!America and its constituency, a self-described alliance of voluntary health agencies, professional societies, associations, corporations, colleges and universities, foundations, and philanthropists. The members of Congress will be surveyed to assess the impact of the Maryland Model Program. "We want to educate the public about medical research," says Donnelly, "to let them know that medical research saves lives and saves money." Donnelly says the group hoped to reach "the silent majority that supports medical research" and to encourage them to act on this conviction. "We'll be looking to see if the needle of public opinion moved and by how much," he says. The wording used in some questions in the survey may have been confusing to respondents. For instance, on the first question, people sampled were read a list of items that the federal government spends money on and then requested to say whether the amount of money spent on each item was too much, too little, or about right. One item was health care: 76 percent felt the government spent too little in that area. But another item on the list was medical research: 56 percent felt more federal spending in this area was called for. It was not clear, however, whether or on what basis respondents might have differentiated between the two. "The thinking behind differentiating the two had to do with Research!America's needs," says Don Haynes, director of survey research at Survey Research Associates. "They needed medical research pulled out separately. But this was not a ranking question, so they weren't in conflict. It's true that health is a broader category, and medical research could be seen as a subset of health." According to Mary Woolley, president of Research!America, the questions were written by Survey Research Associates in consultation with Research!America, with the advocacy group retaining final approval of the questions. On an open-ended question, the survey also found that AIDS and cancer were seen by Maryland voters as the most prominent threats to public health. Asked to name the "one or two greatest health problems facing this country," more people--34 percent of the sample--placed AIDS on the list than any other single public health problem. The second largest percentage, 23 percent, identified cancer. Health care costs and health insurance were viewed as important health threats by 15 percent, with heart disease at 6 percent and drug abuse at 4 percent. Several questions in the survey were devoted to finding out what factors respondents thought contributed to rising U.S. health care costs. A solid majority of 75 percent thought that the cost of prescription drugs was "unreasonably high," helping to raise health care expenses. Also, half or more of those questioned named insurance companies (66 percent), hospitals (60 percent), and pharmaceutical companies (57 percent) as deserving "a lot" of the responsibility for rising health care costs, from a list of nine options. "People with unhealthy habits" were also selected, from the same list, by 60 percent as deserving "a lot" of responsibility. "People seeking unnecessary care," were rated responsible by 50 percent. Medical doctors were seen as largely responsible for escalating costs by 46 percent. The remaining options-- medical technology, government regulation, and medical research--were seen as lesser factors in rising health costs. "One thing we didn't consider in this survey," notes pollster Haynes, "was the impact of lawyers and litigation on rising health care costs. We thought about it after the fact, and, if we do a follow-up, we'll probably include it." Donnelly declines to say which state or states the group might work in next, building on the Maryland Model Program. He says, however, that the existing base level of public and government support for medical research and the number of Research!America members resident in a state (and thus available to support the program) would both be factors in the selection.

Poll Reveals Maryland Voters Bullish On Medical Research

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