Opinions of health care executives on access to care

A poll of the opinions of 359 health care executives (American College of Healthcare Executives affiliates) on access to care shows that they are ambivalent about entitling the entire United States population to equal access to health services. Half of the survey respondents support the concept and nearly half do not. Further results reveal that for nonemergency care, a greater number of health care executives are willing to allow the poor/uninsured to wait than if they were paying patients. Also, half of those polled approve of the poor or uninsured not having a choice of primary physician, hospital, or source of custodial care. Overall, however, 80 percent believe that system-related health outcomes should be similar for the poor and the nonpoor. The role of the government in funding health care in the U.S. is still viewed as supplementing private resources. Few condone any universal health care entitlement. However, for the poor, according to half of those polled, the government should underwrite life-sustaining surgery; it should underwrite prenatal care, according to two-fifths; and a third thought government should fund custodial care for invalids and the elderly. This hierarchy may suggest where government health care funding is crucial.