US Trust in Health Care Drops in 2018
U.S. citizens trust the health care sector less in 2018 than they did in 2017, according to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer.
Edelman researchers surveyed people on how much they trust certain industries.
In 2017 in the U.S., 62% of Americans trusted the health care sector, whereas 53% say they trust it in 2018, a decline of nine percentage points.
Across the world, trust in health care dropped two percentage points to an average of 63%. Trust in healthcare declined in 17 of the 28 markets measured by Edelman.
The nine-percentage point drop in the U.S. is notable, as are drops in trust across health subsectors. U.S. trust dropped:
- 13 percentage points in pharmaceuticals.
- Nine percentage points in health insurance.
- Seven percentage points in consumer health.
- Seven percentage points biotech/life sciences.
The other biggest drops this past year came in:
- Colombia, a 22% drop in trust in health care.
- France, a 12% drop in trust in health care.
- Mexico, a 9% drop in trust in health care.
South Africa, India, Brazil and Argentina also saw declines in trust.
The informed public have even less trust in the U.S. health care industry than the general public. Trust in health care by informed U.S. citizens — defined by Edelman as college-educated consumers of significant media and business news between ages 26 and 64 and among the top 25% of household income earners in their age group — dropped 20 percentage points from 2017 to 2018.
Across the world, the informed public’s trust in health care declined four percentage points, from 73% last year to 69% this year. The biggest drop was in Colombia, where informed citizens’ trust dropped 35 percentage points from 63% in 2017 to 28% in 2018.
While trust in health care had a tumultuous year, some countries that saw an increase in trust in health care this year include:
- Ireland (7% increase).
- Poland (4% increase).
- Italy (3% increase).
Edelman reports that there’s a four-year upward trend in trust across all health subsectors except for pharmaceuticals.
To see full report details, and explorer trust in subsectors, download the Trust Barometer here.
