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Survey: Values for Shaping the U.S. Healthcare System

What priorities will shape the healthcare system we leave the next generation?

To make progress on reshaping U.S. health care, we — as individuals, groups, communities, and a nation — need to get clear about the priorities that will drive the future. This exercise is designed to help you think about and share what is most important to you in a healthcare system. The results of your survey will be combined with others around the country to help all of us get a better idea of what is most important.

From the 15 items below, please select the five priorities that you believe should be shaping the future U.S. healthcare system. FIRST, READ THROUGH ALL 15 OF THE ITEMS. Then pick your top five priorities in order of importance. Select your priorities from the drop down menus at the bottom of this page.

1. Advances in medicine: The U.S. healthcare system should place a very high priority on researching and developing innovative treatments and cures for medical conditions.

2. Availability of healthcare for all: The U.S. healthcare system should make needed services available and accessible to all regardless of ability to pay.

3. Build on the current cystem: The U.S. healthcare system should expand and improve on the current system: job-based insurance and public programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

4. Comprehensive services: The U.S. healthcare system should provide a broad range of health care: prevention, emergency services, and care for on-going illnesses, as well as care for dental, vision and mental health problems, with the care provided and supported at the most appropriate facilities and locations, including the home.

5. Consumer good: The U.S. healthcare system should treat healthcare like other goods and services: it should be available to the extent that you have money to buy it.

6. Health care as a business: The U.S. healthcare and tax systems should encourage healthcare businesses - such as hospitals, insurance, drug and supply companies - to use the market to create a more efficient and effective system.

7. Healthcare as a national concern: The U.S. healthcare system - like homeland security and interstate freeways - needs national planning and financing.

8. Minimize the role of Government: The U.S. healthcare system should minimize the role of government in financing healthcare (e.g. through Medicare and Medicaid and tax benefits) and providing healthcare (e.g. through public clinics, the Veteran's Administration).

9. Patient choice: The U.S. healthcare system should give patients as full a choice of doctors and other providers, settings and treatments as possible.

10. Prevention: The U.S. healthcare system should give priority to services and programs that promote health and keep people from getting sick, such as smoking prevention and nutritional/diet education, childhood immunizations and cancer screenings.

11. Quality of health care: The U.S. healthcare system should have a more effective way of improving the quality of care and reducing medical mistakes.

12. Responsiveness: The U.S. healthcare system should address community and patient needs and demonstrate respect for peoples' dignity, culture and right to make decisions about their care.

13. Spend health dollars for direct patient care: The U.S. healthcare system should spend as much as possible on direct patient care and as little as possible on administrative costs.

14. Stable costs: The U.S. healthcare system should keep healthcare costs from rising faster than the cost of other goods and services.

15. Uninterrupted care: The U.S. healthcare system should reduce to a minimum the need to change doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and levels of coverage.