The new Sick in America poll from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR, and Harvard School of Public Health measures Americans’ views on costs of their medical care and the attitudes of their doctors. Interestingly, this new poll also specifically considers how sick Americans' perceptions of healthcare and provides valuable information on their experiences. It is a different perspective to ask those who have actually had a lot of medical care or who had been hospitalized overnight in the past 12 month. It is not hypothetical for these individuals. Not surprisingly, "a large majority of the general public (87%) thinks the cost of care is a serious problem for the country. In addition, about two-thirds of the general public (65%) believes the cost of care has gotten worse over the last five years." What is frightening is that "about one in ten sick Americans (11%) report being turned away by a doctor or hospital for financial or insurance reasons" in the last 12 months. Some good news is that 51% of the surveyed American who were hospitalized "are 'very satisfied' with the quality of medical care they received while they were in the hospital."

You can get the summary, see charts and slides and read the entire report on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website.