DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09862.v1
title: CBS News/New York Times Health Care Poll, August 18-22, 1991
title: Version 1

description: This survey, in addition to providing an ongoing evaluation
of the Bush presidency, focused on several different facets of the
national health care issue. Respondents were asked whether they
approved of George Bush's handling of the presidency, foreign policy,
and the economy. Relative to health care, respondents were asked
whether health insurance should be required to be provided by employers
or should be funded by tax money, whether a national health insurance
plan costing an additional $1,000 a year in taxes would be an
improvement, whether a national health care system should set rules
about which patients could receive certain procedures, whether the cost
of a national health care system should be split between employers and
the government, and whether tax credits should be given for health
insurance. Questions about the current health care system queried
respondents on how satisfied they were with the current system, what
single most important change in the system they would like to see,
whether the United States was headed toward a crisis in health care,
and whether they were satisfied with the quality and cost of their
current health care. Concerning ways to reduce the cost of a national
health care plan, respondents were asked whether they would be willing
to go to clinics rather than to private doctors, wait longer for
appointments, give up the right to sue for malpractice, or give up
coverage of expensive procedures. In addition, respondents were asked
which country in the world they thought did the best job of making sure
people had affordable health care, whether they approved of the way
George Bush was handling the problem of providing affordable health
care for all Americans, and if they thought it was more likely that
Bush or the Democrats in Congress would come up with a plan to provide
affordable health care. Background information included respondents'
attitudes and practices in the use of health care and whether they were
without health care coverage within the last 12 months. They were also
asked about the type and quality of their health care coverage, the
amount of health care household members had received in the last 12
months, the cost of their health care coverage, and whether the cost of
this health care had ever been a financial burden. Background
information includes the respondent's voting habits in the 1988
presidential election, party affiliation, political orientation,
attitude towards abortion, voter registration status, age, race,
religion, education, household composition, employment status, and
family income.
description: A variation of random digit dialing using primary sampling 
 units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone 
 numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by geographic 
 region, area code, and size of place. Within households, respondents 
 were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by 
 Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY 
RESEARCH [Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963]).
description: Datasets: 
DS1: CBS News/New York Times Health Care Poll, August 18-22, 1991
description: Adult population of the United States aged 18 and over,
having telephones at home.
description: A weight variable has been included that must be used
in any analysis. Area codes, exchange codes, and telephone numbers have
been recoded to "999" and names of respondents have been blanked for
reasons of confidentiality.