Support for Universal Healthcare Dropping Among all American Adults According to LightSource Poll

/PRNewswire/ -- When asked how much additional money they are willing to pay each year to achieve truly universal healthcare coverage for all United States citizens, Americans are becoming less willing to provide their own personal funds. According to LightSource Poll, conducted by KJT Group, the average amount that an adult is willing to spend has decreased dramatically over the past year.

The average adult was willing to spend $201 additionally per year as of February 2010. This dropped to $123 per year as of July/August. These figures are broken down in greater detail in Table 1.

Incremental Additional Amount Adults are Willing to Pay
               Yearly to Achieve Universal Healthcare

                                   February '10       July/August '10
                                         ------------       ---------------
                   $0                   73%                  68%
               $1-$50                    8%                  11%
             $51-$100                    6%                   8%
            $101-$150                    1%                   1%
            $151-$200                    2%                   2%
            $201-$250                    0%                   1%
       Over $250                        10%                  10%
       ---------                             ---                  ---
            Mean                        $201                 $123
                ----                        ----                 ----


  Table 1: How much additional adults are willing to pay annually in
          order to achieve truly universal healthcare coverage

Only 32% of all adults are willing to pay any additional amount of money on a yearly basis as of July/August 2010.

For each wave, there were no statistical differences between Democrats, Republicans and Independents in the average amount they are willing to spend on a yearly basis. Democrats and Independents are more likely than Republicans to contribute any amount toward achieving universal healthcare coverage.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans or Independents to agree with the statement that "Health care is a right, and should be provided to all citizens regardless of ability to pay or their behavior." These results are shown in Table 2.

Democrats       Republicans       Independents

                                    ---------       -----------       ------------

  Completely agree/

    somewhat agree               69%               26%                54%

             -----------------             ---               ---                ---

  Neither agree nor

       disagree                  13%               20%                16%

             -----------------             ---               ---                ---

      Completely

       disagree/

       somewhat

       disagree                  17%               54%                30%

              ----------                ---               ---                ---



Table 2: Percentage of adults who completely agree or somewhat
   agree that "Health care is a right, and should
  be provided to all citizens regardless of ability to pay or their
   behavior." July/August '10

While Democrats and Independents have remained relatively consistent with their agreement over the past year, Republicans have grown more antagonistic with this notion. 33% of Republicans completely disagree with the above statement.

This wave of the LightSource poll was conducted among 1,000 U.S. adults (18 years or older) between July 29 and August 6, 2010. This was a non-probability, stratified sample, collected via web-based interviews. As such, margin of error cannot be accurately estimated. In addition to the results shown here, an oversample of 600 New York State residents was collected and is published separately. For more information such as a detailed methodology, or additional results from this wave of the LightSource, go to www.lightsourcepoll.com.