O Perceptual and Motor SkLUs 1992
Percep&alandMotorSkilk, 1992, 75, 1193-1194.
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT T H E CONSTITUTIONALITY O F HEALTH CARE: AN INFORMAL LOOK JOHN TRINKAUS Baruch Colkge
Summary.--Responses of 558 college students indicated they felt adequate health care should be guaranteed by the Constitution, and about half believed the Constitution presently provides such a guarantee. The Health Letter reports that about three-quarters of the American people feel that the U.S. Constitution should guarantee adequate health care for all. Approximately four out of ten mistakenly believe that it already does (1). Such beliefs, understandably, tend to confound the work of those trying to develop workable schemes to allocate equitably the increasingly scarce commodity of medical services among sociery's many claimants. To gather additional insight into people's perceptions about a constitutionally guaranteed right to health care, a written survey was conducted, in the Spring of 1992, among first-Year baccalaureate students at a large business school in the northeast. The students mostly came from a family environment where the parents were married, high school gaduates, working in blue collar jobs, and living together; a language other than English was generally spoken in the home; the median family Income was less than $20,000 a year; and the value of a college education was seen as 3 means lor a better job and upward socioeconomic mobility. A total of 558 students out of a convenience sample of 593 opted to respond to the voluntary written query: a response rate of 94%. The composition of the responding group, which approximated the about 1600 person universe, was as follows: 63% women and 37% men; 55% US nationals and 45% foreign; 2% less than 18 years of age, 58% 18 to 20 years, 20% 2 1 to 23 years, and 20% older than 23 years of age. The students were asked for a "yes" or "no" answer to the following two questions. (a) Do you think that a guarantee of adequate health care for all is an appropriate provision for the United States Constitution? (b) Does the United States Constitution presently provide such a guarantee? The findings of the group (collectively) and (stratified) by sex and nationality are shown in Table 1 and by age in Table 2.
TABLE 1
NUMBEROF RESPONSES AND PERCENTAGE FOR TOTALITY BY SW Response
Question a Questionb
Total Group (n = 558) Yes No Yes No
Women (n = 353)
Men (n = 205)
%
n
7 '%
n
%
n
92
512 46 302 256
93 7 57 43
328 25 202 151
90 10 49 51
184 21 100 105
8 54 46
AND BY
CITIZENSHIP
US National
Foreign
(n =308) -
( n = 250)
Q
n
96
n
94 6 51 49
291 17 157 151
88 12 58 42
221
29 145 105
'Address enquiries to J. Trinkaus, Baruch College, 17 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
1194
J. TRINKAUS TABLE 2
NUMBEXOF RESPONSES AND PERCENTAGE BY AGE
< 18 yr.
Response
(n = 11) % n Question a Question b
Yes No Yes No
100 0 55 45
11 0
6 5
18 to 20 yr. (n = 324) % n
92 8
298 26
58 42
188 136
21 to 23 yr. (n = 115) % n
> 2 3 yr. ( n = 108) % n
91
105
91
9 55
10
9
10
63 52
41
44 64
45
59
98
Most of the students, perhaps quite expectedIy, felt that adequate health care should be guaranteed by the U.S.Constitution. Not expected, however, was the finding that approximately half of the students believed that the Constitution already provides such a guarantee. While it might be reasoned that many believe that such an assurance is implicit in the existing provisions of the document, under items dealing with promoting the general welfare, perhaps much of the cause might simply be a lack of familiarity with what is and is not now specifically covered. It is recognized that the methodology was limited, in particular the restrictive reply format which did not provide for such information as the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the respondents. Too, there is the inherent restraint on replication of the work and the intrinsic presence of institutional bias on the findings. However, the results appear to suggest that people are interested in access to health care; feel that the Federal Government should be involved; to what is really their due. This latand are not too well informed-in this era of "rights"-as ter finding certainly does nothing to ease the task facing policy makers and medical ethicists as they work toward a plan for dealing with the proper allocation of medical services to the American public. REFERENCE 1. WOLFE, S. Constitudonal wish list. Health Letter (Public Citizen Health Research Group), 1992, 8(2), 11.
Accepted October 9, 1992.
Percep&alandMotorSkilk, 1992, 75, 1193-1194.
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT T H E CONSTITUTIONALITY O F HEALTH CARE: AN INFORMAL LOOK JOHN TRINKAUS Baruch Colkge
Summary.--Responses of 558 college students indicated they felt adequate health care should be guaranteed by the Constitution, and about half believed the Constitution presently provides such a guarantee. The Health Letter reports that about three-quarters of the American people feel that the U.S. Constitution should guarantee adequate health care for all. Approximately four out of ten mistakenly believe that it already does (1). Such beliefs, understandably, tend to confound the work of those trying to develop workable schemes to allocate equitably the increasingly scarce commodity of medical services among sociery's many claimants. To gather additional insight into people's perceptions about a constitutionally guaranteed right to health care, a written survey was conducted, in the Spring of 1992, among first-Year baccalaureate students at a large business school in the northeast. The students mostly came from a family environment where the parents were married, high school gaduates, working in blue collar jobs, and living together; a language other than English was generally spoken in the home; the median family Income was less than $20,000 a year; and the value of a college education was seen as 3 means lor a better job and upward socioeconomic mobility. A total of 558 students out of a convenience sample of 593 opted to respond to the voluntary written query: a response rate of 94%. The composition of the responding group, which approximated the about 1600 person universe, was as follows: 63% women and 37% men; 55% US nationals and 45% foreign; 2% less than 18 years of age, 58% 18 to 20 years, 20% 2 1 to 23 years, and 20% older than 23 years of age. The students were asked for a "yes" or "no" answer to the following two questions. (a) Do you think that a guarantee of adequate health care for all is an appropriate provision for the United States Constitution? (b) Does the United States Constitution presently provide such a guarantee? The findings of the group (collectively) and (stratified) by sex and nationality are shown in Table 1 and by age in Table 2.
TABLE 1
NUMBEROF RESPONSES AND PERCENTAGE FOR TOTALITY BY SW Response
Question a Questionb
Total Group (n = 558) Yes No Yes No
Women (n = 353)
Men (n = 205)
%
n
7 '%
n
%
n
92
512 46 302 256
93 7 57 43
328 25 202 151
90 10 49 51
184 21 100 105
8 54 46
AND BY
CITIZENSHIP
US National
Foreign
(n =308) -
( n = 250)
Q
n
96
n
94 6 51 49
291 17 157 151
88 12 58 42
221
29 145 105
'Address enquiries to J. Trinkaus, Baruch College, 17 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
1194
J. TRINKAUS TABLE 2
NUMBEXOF RESPONSES AND PERCENTAGE BY AGE
< 18 yr.
Response
(n = 11) % n Question a Question b
Yes No Yes No
100 0 55 45
11 0
6 5
18 to 20 yr. (n = 324) % n
92 8
298 26
58 42
188 136
21 to 23 yr. (n = 115) % n
> 2 3 yr. ( n = 108) % n
91
105
91
9 55
10
9
10
63 52
41
44 64
45
59
98
Most of the students, perhaps quite expectedIy, felt that adequate health care should be guaranteed by the U.S.Constitution. Not expected, however, was the finding that approximately half of the students believed that the Constitution already provides such a guarantee. While it might be reasoned that many believe that such an assurance is implicit in the existing provisions of the document, under items dealing with promoting the general welfare, perhaps much of the cause might simply be a lack of familiarity with what is and is not now specifically covered. It is recognized that the methodology was limited, in particular the restrictive reply format which did not provide for such information as the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of the respondents. Too, there is the inherent restraint on replication of the work and the intrinsic presence of institutional bias on the findings. However, the results appear to suggest that people are interested in access to health care; feel that the Federal Government should be involved; to what is really their due. This latand are not too well informed-in this era of "rights"-as ter finding certainly does nothing to ease the task facing policy makers and medical ethicists as they work toward a plan for dealing with the proper allocation of medical services to the American public. REFERENCE 1. WOLFE, S. Constitudonal wish list. Health Letter (Public Citizen Health Research Group), 1992, 8(2), 11.
Accepted October 9, 1992.
