SDRCC Healthcare Committee Survey

SDRCC Healthcare Committee Survey

Final Report

Prepared by Healthcare Education and Communication Subcommittee

May 4, 2007

Executive Summary

This document is the final report of the results of the April 2007 Healthcare Committee Survey. A total of 216 Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) members responded to the survey via email. The Chamber members who responded were distributed over a wide range of business focus—not just healthcare-related members (12.6%). There was good representation of Chamber responders from small, medium, and large businesses. A substantial majority (67.3%) of responders reported they were either the owner or executive managers.

Key results:

Government Sponsored Single-payer solution: Over half (60.6 percent) disagree or strongly disagree with a single-payer solution.

Combined solution: Nearly three quarters (72.0 percent)) agree or strongly agree to a combined solution of individuals, business, and government but under a different system than presently conducted.

Immigration status: The majority (68.4 percent) disagrees or strongly disagrees that healthcare coverage should include all people regardless of immigration status.

o Non-healthcare responders disagree more (72.6 percent disagree or strongly disagree) as compared to healthcare industry responders (50.0 percent disagree or strongly disagree).

Most important healthcare policy issue: One in four reported that the most important healthcare policy issue is coverage solutions for uninsured (24.6 percent), followed by undocumented immigrants (18.3 percent), Government (Federal, State, and County) funding (14.7 percent), access to care (12.5 percent), and employer contribution requirements (12.0 percent).

o For the healthcare industry, the top two most important issues are government (Federal, State, and County) funding (29.1 percent) and access to care (20.8 percent). For non-healthcare responders, the top two most important issues are coverage solutions for uninsured (25.3 percent) and undocumented immigrants (19.9 percent).

We will post the results on the Chamber website. We plan to follow up on the results of this survey and we hope to distribute the survey before the end of May 2007.

Sections of the report include:

Goals and Objectives

Discussion

Methodology

Results

Appendix A: Healthcare and Non-Healthcare Industry Comparison

Appendix B. Biomedical, Biotech, and Pharmaceutical Responses

Goals and Objectives

According to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) Healthcare Committee Statement of Purpose and Guiding Principles, the actions of the committee members are to be ÒÉin the best interest of all Chamber membersÉÓ Thus, the goal of the Healthcare Committee Survey is to better understand the Òbest interestÓ of Chamber members.

Global objectives of the Healthcare Surveys:

1. Determine Chamber member importance on the Primary and Secondary Healthcare Issues as stated in the Health Care Committee Purpose and Guiding Principles. The items in this survey are derived directly from that list of issues.

2. Assist Health Care Committee members a in the decision-making process by providing Chamber-wide perspectives on healthcare issues.

3. Provide the Chamber with a practical and relevant forum to communicate with its members on healthcare issues.

Specific objectives of the 2007 Healthcare Survey:

Determine which realistic alternative healthcare solution (as determined by the subcommittee) the Chamber members supported (single payer or combined).
Determine the degree of concern of immigration status for healthcare coverage policy.
Identify the most important policy issue for Chamber members in the healthcare legislative proposals.

Methodology

This survey is the follow-up survey to our first survey in 2006. We wanted to gain greater clarity on critical issues presented in the initial survey, as well as on the present healthcare legislation. The results presented here will be forwarded to the Taskforce, Healthcare Committee, and shared with other Chamber committees.

The Healthcare Committee Survey methodology is presented in greater detail in a previous report (SDRCC Healthcare Committee Survey Final Report_v3). Some key methodology points include:

The Healthcare Survey was conducted via email through the ChamberÕs vendor, Cooler Email.
The survey was designed to be short (8 items - 4 topic questions and 4 demographic questions) in order to promote maximum response and provide rapid feedback.
The number of Chamber members were emailed from Chamber internal lists (n = 4,665). This was a few hundred members less than our first survey (n = 5,053).
We also examined differences in response between healthcare organizations and non-healthcare organization responders (See Appendix A).
The survey is a Òconvenience sampleÓ. Caveats include selection bias and other validity issues.
Distribution of educational information relating to the healthcare issues presented in the survey is under development.

Results

Response to Survey Results

The Cooler Email system reported a total of 4,665 Chamber members were emailed via Chamber internal lists.
The survey system reported that 1,124 unique email addresses clicked on and perhaps viewed the survey, about one-fourth of the 4,665 email addresses.
Several Chamber members reported firewall and other security issues that prevented them from receiving the survey.
A total of 216 Chamber members responded to the survey.

Response to Questions Results

Our survey presented four healthcare policy queries:

1) The best solution for healthcare is a government sponsored single-payer system eliminating individual and business sponsored insurance?

2) The best solution for healthcare is a combined responsibility of individuals, business, and government, but conducted differently than it is today?

3) Healthcare coverage should include all people regardless of immigration status?

4) Please select the most important (only one) issue regarding the recent healthcare policy initiatives?

There results are presented below:

Table 1. The best solution for healthcare is a government sponsored single-payer system eliminating individual and business sponsored insurance?

Strongly Agree		Agree		Neither Agree nor Disagree		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
31	14.4%	33	15.3%	21	9.7%	45	20.8%	86	39.8%

Figure 1. Percent Responses: The best solution for healthcare is a government sponsored single-payer system eliminating individual and business sponsored insurance?

Table 2. Percent Responses: The best solution for healthcare is a combined responsibility of individuals, business, and government, but conducted differently than it is today?

Strongly Agree		Agree		Neither Agree nor Disagree		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
52	26.0%	92	46.0%	29	14.5%	18	9.0%	9	4.5%

Figure 2. Percent Responses: The best solution for healthcare is a combined responsibility of individuals, business, and government, but conducted differently than it is today?

Table 3. Healthcare coverage should include all people regardless of immigration status?

Strongly Agree		Agree		Neither Agree nor Disagree		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent	Count	Percent
21	10.6%	25	12.6%	17	8.5%	60	30.2%	76	38.2%

Figure 3. Percent Responses: Healthcare coverage should include all people regardless of immigration status?

Table 4. Please select the most important (only one) issue regarding the recent healthcare policy initiatives?

Most Important Issue	Count	Percent
Employer contribution requirements	23	12.0%
Employee contribution requirements	9	4.7%
Coverage for employee dependents	2	1.0%
Coverage solutions for uninsured	47	24.6%
Government (Federal, State, and County) funding	28	14.7%
Tax increases on physician services & hospitals	1	0.5%
Mandates on insurance companies	11	5.8%
Access to care (i.e., hospitals, ER, and physicians)	24	12.6%
Undocumented immigrants	35	18.3%
Other	11	5.8%
Total	191	100.0%

Figure 4. Percent Responses: Please select the most important (only one) issue regarding the recent healthcare policy initiatives? Note that some categories are combined into ÒOtherÓ.

Responder/Organizational Information

Our survey presented four organizational queries:

1) Does your company provide health insurance for its employees?

2) Which one of the following industries best represents your business focus?

3) How many employees in your company?
4) What best describes your position in the company?

Table 5. Does your company provide health insurance for its employees?

Response	Count	Percent
Yes	158	83.2%
No	29	15.3%
I do not know	3	1.6%
Total	190	1

Figure 5. Does your company provide health insurance for its employees?

Table 6. Which one of the following industries best represents your business focus?

Business	Count	Percent
Biomedical, Biotech, and Pharmaceutical	6	3.2%
Communications	11	5.8%
Computer Hardware, Software, and Electronics Manufacturing	8	4.2%
Construction and Real Estate Development	13	6.8%
Defense and Security Contracting	4	2.1%
Financial Services	28	14.7%
Healthcare	24	12.6%
Hospitality and Entertainment	14	7.4%
Retail and Wholesale	8	4.2%
Other	74	38.9%
Total	190	100%

The Chamber provided us with a table of industry membership. Unfortunately, there is not a one-to-one correspondence to the business sector categories used in the survey.

Table 7. Chamber Membership Industry Distribution 2007.

Business Sector	Chamber Organizational Members	Percent
Accommodation & Food Services	151	7%
Arts, Entertainment & Recreation	84	4%
Communication	50	2%
Construction	135	6%
Consumer	112	5%
Educational Services	53	2%
Finance & Insurance	225	10%
Food & Beverage	5	0%
Health Care	126	6%
Industrial	223	10%
Information	114	5%
Natural Resources	19	1%
Other Services	104	5%
Professional Services	297	13%
Public Administration	42	2%
Real Estate	179	8%
Technology	137	6%
Trade	86	4%
No Name	74	3%
Total	2216	100%

Table 8. How many employees in your company?

Size	Count	Percent
1	26	13.7%
2 - 10	54	28.4%
11 - 50	43	22.6%
51 - 200	26	13.7%
201 - 1000	19	10.0%
1001 - 5000	9	4.7%
More than 5000	13	6.8%
Total	190	100%

Table 9. What best describes your position in the company?

Position	Count	Percent
Owner	82	43.2%
Executive Manager	48	25.3%
Mide-level <sic> Manager	37	19.5%
Non-Management	15	7.9%
Other	8	4.2%
Total	190	100%

Convenience Sample Analysis

Since this is a convenience sample, we acknowledge that we may not have gathered a truly representative sample of the Chamber membership. To get a better understanding, we examined the organizational profiles of the responders to determine the make-up of our convenience sample. We examined the four profiles of the responderÕs role and organization: number of employees, business focus, healthcare coverage, and the responderÕs position at the company. The distribution Chamber member industries that responded to the survey is wide but not a perfect match to the Chamber membership. No organizational focus category was close to a majority, with the category of ÒOtherÓ winning the pool. The healthcare industry represented 12.6 percent of the respondersÕ business focus (15.8 percent if biomedical, biotech, and pharmaceutical are included as healthcare industries). This is a bit more than the percentage of healthcare industries in the Chamber. Thus, the results could be biased toward the healthcare industryÕs perspective (6 percent). The sample also included a wide range with respect to number of employees. All seven classifications of the size of the organization were well represented. The higher representation of smaller companies is reflected in the Chamber membership distribution although we do not have specific data on organizational size of Chamber members.