The Public's Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress
This Kaiser Family Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health survey, The Public’s Health Care Agenda for the 113th Congress , was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation led by Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., including Claudia Deane, Bianca DiJulio, Sarah Cho, and Theresa Boston, by Debra Perez, Ph.D., Katherine Hempstead, Ph.D., and David Colby, Ph.D. at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and by Professor Robert Blendon, Sc.D., John Benson, and Mandy Brulé at the Harvard School of Public Health. The survey was conducted January 3 through January 9, 2013, among a nationally representative random sample of 1,347 adults ages 18 and older. Telephone interviews conducted by landline (807) and cell phone (540, including 253 who had no landline telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish by Social Science Research Solutions. Both the landline and cell phone samples were generated through Marketing Systems Group’s GENESYS sampling system. For the landline sample, respondents were selected by asking for the adult male or female with the most recent birthday currently at home based on a random rotation. If no one of that gender was available, interviewers asked to speak with a household member of the opposite gender. For the cell phone sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone.
The combined landline and cell phone sample was weighted to balance the sample demographics to match estimates for the national population data from the 2012 March Supplement of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey on sex, age, education, race, Hispanic origin, nativity (for Hispanics only), household size, region, and population density. The sample was also weighted to match current patterns of telephone use using data from the January – June 2012 National Health Interview Survey. The weight takes into account the fact that respondents with both a landline and cell phone have a higher probability of selection in the combined sample and also adjusts for the household size for the landline sample. All statistical tests of significance account for the effect of weighting. Weighted and unweighted values for key demographic variables are shown in the table below.
| SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS | ||
| Unweighted | Weighted | |
| Gender | ||
| Male | 50.0% | 48.7% |
| Female | 50.0% | 51.3% |
| Age | ||
| 18-29 | 12.1% | 20.6% |
| 30-49 | 28.5% | 34.8% |
| 50-64 | 35.6% | 26.1% |
| 65+ | 23.4% | 18.1% |
| Education | ||
| Less than HS Grad. | 6.6% | 12.3% |
| HS Grad. | 23.2% | 32.7% |
| Some College | 24.9% | 25.8% |
| College Grad. | 44.8% | 28.8% |
| Race/Ethnicity | ||
| White, not Hispanic | 72.2% | 66.2% |
| Black, not Hispanic | 9.0% | 10.9% |
| Hisp – US born | 5.5% | 7.0% |
| Hisp – born outside US | 5.1% | 7.3% |
| Other, not Hispanic | 5.9% | 6.7% |
| Party Identification | ||
| Democrat | 36.1% | 35.5% |
| Independent | 30.7% | 30.4% |
| Republican | 24.6% | 23.5% |
The margin of sampling error including the design effect is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Sample sizes and margin of sampling errors for other subgroups are available by request. Note that sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error in this or any other public opinion poll.
The response rate calculated based on the American Association of Public Opinion Research’s Response Rate 3 formula was 18 percent for the landline sample and 16 percent for the cell phone sample.
Please note:
- Table percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
- Values less than 0.5% are indicated by an asterisk (*).
- “vol.” indicates that a response was volunteered by respondent and not an explicitly offered choice.