Newspaper Coverage Portrays Managed Care Negatively
| Autor: | Kim Walsh-Childers, Carolyn Ringer Lepre, Jean Chance |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2003 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Newspaper Research Journal. 24:6-21 |
| ISSN: | 2376-4791 0739-5329 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/073953290302400201 |
| Popis: | The news media are often responsible for explaining and providing their audiences with information about important national issues. However, when the issue is as complex as the organization, delivery and financing of health care, news coverage can be inadequate, biased and even misleading. This article uses a qualitative frame analysis to gain a broader view of how journalists covered the organization, delivery and financing of health care during 1996, after health care reform's prominence on the political agenda had waned. This period should reflect more typical health news coverage by U.S. newspapers compared to analyses conducted when health care reform was a major campaign issue. Given the slowness of change in journalistic practices, the results provide a good idea of how health issues likely will be covered in the next decade.News media significantly determine whose viewpoints are heard in the public debate on health issues, what aspects of the health care system are discussed and in what context. The way in which journalists frame health issues in news stories can influence public and policymakers' responses to those problems.1BackgroundTen years ago, managed care plans covered only about 29 percent of people working for businesses with 200 or more employees. By 1999, 91 percent of workers in employer-sponsored health plans were in managed care.2 Between 1993 and September 1999, the percentage of Medicare recipients enrolled in managed care plans more than tripled (from 5 percent to 16 percent), and by the year 2009, projections indicate that nearly one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries will be participating in managed care plans. More than half of the nation's 41 million Medicaid recipients already are covered by such plans.3Public concern about changes in the organization and financing of health services has been reflected in recent polls. When registered voters surveyed in a September 2000 CBS/New York Times poll were asked to name the "single most important problem for the government . . . to address in the coming year," health care was the most commonly named topic, mentioned by 16 percent of the respondents; another 9 percent specifically named Medicare/Medicaid. Nearly a quarter of the adults who responded to a June 2000 Newsweek poll said reforming the health care system should be the federal government's highest priority for the next year or more, and another 11 percent named fixing the Medicare system as the top priority.4 Surveys also have demonstrated that the public is worried about the effects health care system change may have on health care availability and quality. For instance, one survey revealed that although most Americans enrolled in managed care plans are satisfied with their health plans, they are anxious about key aspects of managed care.5Despite intense public interest in and concern about these issues, research has shown that the news media generally have done a poor job covering managed care and other aspects of health system change.6 This failure is important because the way news media cover an issue may have widespread impact on readers' opinions about public health.7 News coverage of health issues may help to educate policy-makers, who often cite mainstream news media as important sources of information about policy issues.8 In addition, news media may influence policy-makers indirectly because citizens active in health care policy debates use the news media for information.9 Previous research also has suggested that news coverage may influence health policy development by helping (or not helping) to put particular issues on the public agenda and by influencing changes in public and policy-maker opinion.10Indeed, the managed care industry has argued that negative media coverage has driven increasing governmental efforts to regulate managed care, along with a public backlash toward managed care. Bernard and Shulkin concluded from their analysis of newspaper articles on managed care that only 8 percent of the articles were likely to encourage readers to join or remain with a managed care organization. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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