The new Deloitte 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers results challenges some of the conventional wisdom Americans express about the health care system. Read more:

Conventional Wisdom: The uninsured are far more likely to use less expensive retail health clinics.
Survey Says: Not so. 17 percent of the uninsured have used clinics, as opposed to 16 percent of the insured.

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers trust their doctors to make medical decisions for them.
Survey Says: Only 20 percent are content to let their doctor make the decision.

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers with health insurance don’t worry about health costs.
Survey Says: 93 percent of consumers are insecure about their ability to handle future health care costs.

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers prefer to stay close to home for their physician and hospital services.
Survey Says: 90 percent would willingly travel outside their community – including 39 percent to foreign countries - for comparable and less expensive treatment.

Conventional Wisdom: Medicare enrollees won’t shop for services or use Internet.
Survey Says: Nearly half of Medicare enrollees are self-directed activists in their care, and many use websites for information about price and quality

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers won’t agree to tax increases to help cover the uninsured.
Survey Says: 63 percent say they’d strongly support tax increases to cover the uninsured, or are willing to consider it.

Conventional Wisdom: Consumers are content to let employers and health plans choose the particulars of their insurance policies.
Survey Says: 78 percent want to customize their coverage.

Related Content:
Survey: 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers
Fact Sheet Library: Health Care Consumerism
Overview: Center for Health Solutions