Values for Shaping the U.S. Healthcare System - What Priorities Should Shape the Future?
Health care is an important concern for most people and is an important topic in our government at the national, state and local levels. We want to know your opinion of what should shape the future of the U.S. healthcare system.  From the 15 items below, please select the five priorities that you believe should be shaping the future U.S. healthcare system.

FIRST, PLEASE READ THROUGH ALL 15 OF THE ITEMS. THEN PICK YOUR TOP FIVE PRIORITIES IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE.
  1. Advances in research: The U.S. healthcare system should spend more money on research to prevent and treat health problems than it does now.
     
  2. Universal access: The U.S. healthcare system should make needed services available to all regardless of ability to pay.
     
  3. Build on the current system: The U.S. healthcare system should expand and improve on the current system -- job-based insurance and public programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
     
  4. Comprehensive services: The U.S. healthcare system should provide access to a broad range of health care -- prevention, emergency services, trauma, and care for on-going illnesses, as well as care for dental, vision and mental health problems, with the care provided and supported at the most appropriate facilities and locations, including the home.
     
  5. Consumer good: The U.S. healthcare system should treat health care like other goods and services; it should be available to the extent that you have money to buy it.
     
  6. Health care as a business: The U.S. healthcare system should allow healthcare businesses -- such as hospitals, insurance, drug and supply companies -- to make as much profit as they can within tax and other relevant regulations.
     
  7. Health care as a national concern: The U.S. healthcare system, like homeland security and interstate freeways, needs national planning and financing.
     
  8. Minimize the role of government: The U.S. healthcare system should minimize the role of government in financing health care (e.g., through Medicare, Medicaid and tax benefits) and providing health care (e.g., through public clinics and the Veterans' Administration).
     
  9. Patient choice: The U.S. healthcare system should give patients as full a choice of doctors and other providers, settings and treatments as possible.
     
  10. Prevention: The U.S. healthcare system should give priority to services and programs that promote health and keep people from getting sick, such as smoking prevention and nutrition/diet education, childhood immunizations and cancer screenings.
     
  11. Public participation: The U.S. healthcare system should have effective ways for the public to help set priorities for health care, influence decisions about important healthcare issues, and improve the healthcare system.
     
  12. Quality of health care: The U.S. healthcare system should have a more effective way of improving the quality of care and reducing medical mistakes.
     
  13. Spend health dollars for direct patient care: The U.S. healthcare system should spend as much as possible on direct patient care and as little as possible on administrative costs.
     
  14. Stable costs: The U.S. healthcare system should keep healthcare costs from rising faster than the costs of other goods and services.
     
  15. Uninterrupted care: The U.S. healthcare system should reduce to a minimum the need to change doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and levels of coverage.

Survey Questions
1.  My top priority is:   
2.  My next priority is: 
3.  My next priority is: 
4.  My next priority is: 
5.  My next priority is: 
6.  I am an Avera employee:  Yes    No
7.  Gender:    Male    Female
8.  Age: 17 and Under
  18 - 35 Years
  36 - 64 Years
  65 Years and Over
9. Healthcare Coverage:  (Check all that apply)
    From a Job
    Medicaid / Public Program
    Medicare
    I don't have insurance
    Other (please specify)