Proposal for national health insurance and health policy: social survey results.

Numerous proposals for national health insurance (NHI) are before the Congress. This study measures public preferences for three widely debated forms of NHI bases on national survey data from 1978. Analyses of the comprehensive, catastrophic and deductible forms of NHI are conducted separately using the multivariate probit technique. Findings suggest that, in general, public preference is greatest for the comprehensive plan and lowest for the catastrophic plan. Supporters of the comprehensive plan tend to be young, Democrats, members of lower socioeconomic groups, nonwhite, residents of the West, Northeast or urban areas, and without extended health insurance coverage. Support of NHI options is associated with political party preference as well as sociodemographic characteristics.