What's scarier than terrorism? For Americans, it's the country's health care system.
Chase Communications, a public relations and health policy communications firm, found that 74 percent of Americans are "extremely" or "very" concerned about health care, just slightly behind the 79 percent concerned about the economy and ahead of the 67 percent about joblessness. By comparison, only 59 percent are as concerned about terrorism and only 51 percent about a government shutdown.
The reason? That's thanks to fears over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the high costs of health care. The same percentage of Americans — 49 percent — said those two items are areas of major concern.
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Furthering fears, 93 percent said they expect health care costs to keep increasing.
Chase Communications also examined other concerns over health care in its new "Worry Scale," which analyzed the responses of some 1,000 Americans nationwide.
It also found:
- 36 percent worry about living longer, but not being healthy;
- 35 percent are concerned about caring for a chronic disease such as diabetes or heart disease;
- 30 percent are worried about having a pre-existing condition;
- 29 percent worry about caring for an aging parent;
- 28 percent are concerned about end-of-life care.
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