New Poll: Insurance Coverage Affects Personal Health Perceptions
Americans with health insurance rate their personal health overall much higher than the uninsured, but the relationship between health insurance and actual physical health is not as clear, according to a new Gallup poll.
Out of nearly 200,000 interviews conducted from January through October 2011, 80 percent of Americans aged 18 to 64 reported having health insurance coverage in the poll published Wednesday. Nearly 6 out of 10 respondents with health insurance rated their health as either "excellent" or "very good," compared with 36 percent of those without coverage.
Additionally, insured respondents were more than twice as likely as the uninsured to say they have a personal doctor.
However, insurance did not appear to be a factor in actual physical health - all clinically diagnosed conditions in the survey other than high cholesterol and depression had no statistically significant differences based on health coverage status.
Gallup notes that “the insured are more aware of their actual health situation because of their greater access to a physician or that they may take greater care in maintaining their health, which could include regular doctor visits.”
The research is part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which tracks wellbeing in the U.S., U.K., and Germany.