Measuring attitude toward social health insurance

• Published in: The European journal of health economics 2012-12, Vol.13 (6), p.707-722
• Main Authors: Loh, Chung-Ping A., Nihalani, Katrin, Schnusenberg, Oliver
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Attitudes; Business; China; Chinese culture; Countries; Discriminant analysis; Economic Policy; Economic theory; Employees; Employer provided health insurance; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Germany; Government; Health care; Health Care Management; Health care policy; Health care reform; Health Economics; Health facilities; Health insurance; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health services; Humans; Insurance coverage; Insurance premiums; Literature; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; National Health Programs; Original Paper; Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes; Political attitudes; Public Finance; Public Health; Public Opinion; Rural areas; Social policy; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Taxes; United States; Urban areas; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1618-7598; 1618-7601
• DOI: 10.1007/s10198-011-0324-0

In order to understand the health care system a country chooses to adopt or the health care reform a country decides to undertake, one must first be able to measure a country's attitude toward social health insurance. Our primary goal was to develop a construct that allows us to measure this "attitude toward social health insurance". Using a sample of 724 students from the People's Republic of China, Germany, and the United States and an initial set of sixteen items, we extract a scale that measures the basic attitude toward social health insurance in the three countries. The scale is internally consistent in each of the three countries. A secondary factor labeled "government responsibility" is marginally consistent for the total sample and for the German sample. German respondents have the most favorable attitude toward social health insurance, followed by China, and then the United States. Chinese respondents have the most favorable attitude toward government responsibility in health insurance. The scale developed here can be used to further investigate and understand which health care system will succeed and which will fail in a given country, which is important from both a political and an economic perspective.