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Poll: Minnesotans worrying about health care coverage
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
June 4, 2004

More than half of those polled say they also have concerns about paying for a huge medical bill if something serious happened to them. Other poll respondents say they believe they have adequate health insurance but worry that rising health care costs will change their coverage in the future. (Mason Dixon Research)

Most respondents in the latest Minnesota Public Radio-St. Paul Pioneer Press poll say they believe they have adequate health insurance. But respondents also say they're worried that their coverage could change as health insurance and prescription drug costs increase.

St. Paul, Minn. — The poll results show that most people are satisfied with their current health insurance situation but have deep concerns about the future of their care. Very Hunt falls into that category. The 73-year-old Deerwood native describes her health insurance situation as "adequate... for now."

Hunt is one of the 78 percent polled who describe their health insurance situation as adequate. She's retired and is covered by a Medicare supplemental health insurance policy. She says that policy costs her $300 a month. She also says it's getting more difficult to make ends meet. Hunt is one of the 43 percent of those polled who say they have had to change their spending priorities to pay for their health insurance.

She says she no longer takes vacations and cuts back on other pleasure activities so she can pay for her health insurance.

"There isn't much you can do to prepare for it when you're on a retired income. It's fixed and besides every year everything else goes up like heating and so forth. There isn't much you can do to prepare for it so all you can do is hope your insurance can pay for most of it and then you'll have to pay it off with payments or something," she says.

	Sen. Dave Durenberger

More than half of those polled say they also have concerns about paying for a huge medical bill if something serious happened to them. Other poll respondents say they believe they have adequate health insurance but worry that rising health care costs will change their coverage in the future.

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the rate of inflation is so doggone high and I personally don't understand why," says Lewis Clark, a retired graphic artist from Maplewood. He's one of the 54 percent who say their health insurance coverage has stayed the same in recent years. He receives part of his insurance through Medicare and part through an HMO that is paid for by his former employer.

Clark, 76, says he knows the cost of health insurance firsthand, since he used to negotiate employee contracts while serving in the paper workers' union. He says the bulk of the public doesn't know that health insurance costs are eating into company profits and employee wages because they only pay co-pays and insurance premiums.

"I really feel sorry for companies who provide health insurance for their employees. They're paying right through the nose and in some cases I don't think the employees know how much it's costing. It is a big issue," he says.

Clark also says he's concerned about the cost of medicine. In fact, nearly six in 10 of those polled say they're concerned about the cost of prescription drugs.

Former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger chaired a governor-appointed task force to come up with solutions to the issue of rising health care costs.

Durenberger says the poll results are consistent with the concerns he's heard from citizens across the state. He says eighty percent of the public typically thinks it has adequate health insurance because most consumers don't need health care often. He says the other 20 percent of the public use the system often and most of those heavy users aren't happy with the results.

"People who say they have adequate health insurance have just not had to use it lately. If you go down to one of your other questions where people are asked about the potential for a huge medical bill and so forth, then you start seeing the other part of it because down there you've got something like 50 percent of the people saying they're either very or somewhat concerned about the possibility of a huge medical bill," Durenberger notes.

Several health care reform bills failed in the Legislature this year when lawmakers couldn't resolve their differences on balancing the state's budget.

Gov. Pawlenty says he hopes to introduce some major health care reforms as a part of his next two-year budget. The poll interviewed 625 likely voters in Minnesota between May 24 and May 26. It has a margin of sampling error of no more than plus or minus four percentage points.

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