Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Texas A&M University, 212 Adriance Lab Rd., 1266 TAMU, College Station, TX, USA.
School of Public Policy, The Pennsylvania State University, 322 Pond Laboratory, University Park, PA, USA.
Health Econ Policy Law. 2022 Jul;17(3):298-331. doi: 10.1017/S1744133121000281. Epub 2021 Oct 21.
Scholars and journalists have devoted considerable attention to understanding the circumstances in which Americans receive surprise medical bills. Previous research on this issue has focused on the scope of the problem, including the conditions that are most likely to lead to surprise bills. However, the existing literature has almost exclusively relied on claims data, limiting our understanding of consumer experiences and attitudes toward policy changes to address surprise billing. Using a survey administered to a nationally representative sample of 4998 Americans, we analyze consumer experiences with surprise billing, knowledge of the issue, how concerned Americans are about receiving surprise bills and how past experiences influence policy preferences toward federal action on surprise billing. Our analysis demonstrates that knowledge and concern about surprise billing are the highest among the educated and those who have previously received a surprise bill. These factors also predict support for federal policy action, with high levels of support for federal policy action across the population, including among both liberals and conservatives. However, more detailed federal policy proposals receive significantly less support among Americans, suggesting that stand-alone policy action may not be viable. Our results show bipartisan support among American consumers for federal action on surprise billing in the abstract but no consistent views on specific policy proposals.
学者和记者已经投入了相当多的精力来理解美国人接受意外医疗账单的情况。此前关于这个问题的研究主要集中在问题的范围上，包括最有可能导致意外账单的情况。然而，现有文献几乎完全依赖于索赔数据，这限制了我们对消费者体验和对解决意外计费问题的政策变化的态度的理解。我们使用一项针对 4998 名美国全国代表性样本的调查，分析了消费者对意外计费的体验、对该问题的了解程度、美国人对收到意外计费的担忧程度，以及过去的经历如何影响他们对联邦政府在意外计费问题上采取行动的政策偏好。我们的分析表明，在受教育程度较高和以前收到过意外账单的人群中，对意外计费的了解和关注程度最高。这些因素也预示着对联邦政策行动的支持，包括在所有人群中，包括自由派和保守派，都对联邦政策行动表示高度支持。然而，美国人对更详细的联邦政策提案的支持率要低得多，这表明独立的政策行动可能不可行。我们的研究结果表明，美国消费者对联邦政府在意外计费问题上采取行动持两党支持的态度，但对具体政策提案没有一致的看法。
