Perceptions of Quality
When asked if they believe that the overall quality of health care in the U.S. is the best in the world, fewer than half of patients and physicians and just 55 percent of employers agreed. However, when asked about the quality of health care that they/their employees received in the last year, at least 80 percent of patients and employers expressed satisfaction, and 94 percent of physicians were satisfied with the quality of care they delivered. This misalignment between the apparent disconnect—within all three stakeholder groups—between national and personal levels of satisfaction with quality may help explain voter behavior and public sentiment toward reform and warrants further study.
We first asked patients, physicians, and employers which aspect of our value equation was most important to them.
(We changed the employer value equation to better reflect their interests.) The majority of patients and the vast
majority of physicians said that quality was the most important aspect of health care, while employers valued
employee satisfaction with their medical benefit plans. You can begin to see disconnects, not just among the groups
but also between what they value in the abstract and how that compares to the more granular aspects of health care.
