Three-quarters of Americans want major healthcare change and system reform, making the U.S. stand out as an outlier on this topic, according to research published Oct. 21.
The research was done by the Pew Research Center, which conducted interviews in 17 economically developed nations either over the phone or online. The 18,850 respondents were asked questions about their views on democracy and desire for political, economic and healthcare reform.
The U.S. and Greece had the highest level of respondents expressing the need for significant healthcare reform, with 76 percent of Americans and 77 percent of Greeks saying the system needed major changes or complete reform. Across all 17 countries involved in the report, 45 percent was the median of those believing that healthcare needed major reform. Those who identified as members of either major U.S. political party want significant healthcare reform, but the desire for change was larger among Democrats, 39 percent of whom wanted major reform compared to 20 percent of Republicans.
In Belgium, Singapore and Taiwan, almost 1 in 5 people believed their healthcare system didn't need to be changed. Also, younger people in the U.S. were more likely to think the system needs complete reform, whereas older people in New Zealand, Canada, Australia and South Korea were more likely to give the same answer.