More than 26,000 Report Top Health Care Concerns In Unprecedented Survey by AFL-CIO

Thursday, March 20, 2008

For immediate release
Contact: Caren Benjamin 202-637-5018

AFL-CIO to Send Giant Survey’s Results to 2008 Candidates

On Tuesday, March 25 at 11:30 a.m. on a teleconference call the AFL-CIO will release the results of an unprecedented survey that belies conventional wisdom about the health care crisis in America.

More than 26,000 people responded to the AFL-CIO’s Health Care for America survey over a seven-week period, making it one of the largest opinion pools available on health care. Of those, over 7,000 submitted personal stories. The survey and stories are available at www.healthcaresurvey.aflcio.org

The respondents include union members and those without unions, young and old, insured and uninsured. The results include intriguing trends around health care concerns which haven’t been captured before, especially among the insured and among voters.

“We launched this survey because we wanted to map the landscape of the health care crisis in America and to provide that information to candidates running for public office in 2008,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “We knew people were hurting. Now we know so much more about who they are and how much pain they are in. Person after person told us their heart-wrenching stories, saying they just want elected officials to understand what people are going through. The response we received was stunning enough – both in content and in sheer volume – to redefine the debate over health care in America, during the election season and beyond.”

The AFL-CIO will present the results of this survey to candidates for public office at every level and increase its mobilization to help ensure that candidates who win in November go into office with a mandate for real health care reform.

State break out figures will be available for the following states: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin.

What: Press conference call to release results of AFL-CIO health care survey of 26,419 respondents

When: Tuesday, March 25 at 11:30 a.m. ET

Who: AFL-CIO President John Sweeney; Guy Molyneux of Hart Research, respondents who submitted stories.

How: For conference call information please call 202-637-5018 or email cbenjami@aflcio.org