I sorted through my rupturing inbox a few weeks ago and came across an interesting tidbit. The Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School released the results of their Harvard Youth Poll, a nationwide survey of over 2,000 young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29, which was conducted in March 2024.
Among the multitude of questions posed to respondents was an interesting exercise. The polling format ‘identified 16 prominent areas of concern and asked survey respondents in a series of randomized matchups which one of two paired issues was more important to them.’ These prominent domains ranged from student debt to inflation to immigration and to protecting democracy, to name a few. You can see the results here if you’re interested.
It may come as no surprise that economic concerns (defined broadly as ‘inflation’) were viewed as the most important issue against 14/15 of the other domains it was pitted against. After all, what could be more important to America’s youth then being able to get a job, pay the rent and make their own way in the world. The only domain that inflation lost to in a head-to-head matchup? Women’s reproductive rights.
The only other domain that was as dominant in a head-to-head matchup against other choices was ‘healthcare’ (what the broad term encompasses is unclear). Again, it was rated as the most important issue in 14/15 paired matchups, losing out only to – you guessed it – inflation.
Why are thousands of American youths more concerned about healthcare than, say, protecting democracy? Or student debt? Or free speech? Or immigration? Why are people, the overwhelming majority of whom likely have no chronic diseases, have probably rarely visited a doctor themselves, and are presumably healthy overall, so concerned about healthcare?
We can debate about the sample and whether these 2,000+ respondents are truly representative of ‘America’s youth’ or whether there is some sampling bias. I have the benefit of having seen the raw data and 60% of respondents are between the ages of 18-24 and 72% are Caucasian. Maybe not as representative of America’s youth as we’d like. But let’s put that aside for a moment.
Interpreting the results of this poll is difficult for another reason too: because we don’t know what ‘healthcare’ as a prominent area of concern includes. To wit, why was the domain of ‘women’s reproductive rights’, which is clearly a ‘healthcare’ issue, not included as part of the ‘healthcare’ domain?
But, nevertheless, there are some key takeaways from this survey. Here’s a thought or two about interpreting the surprising strength of ‘healthcare’ as a domain for this age group.
America’s youth are in a mental health crisis. Numerous studies and prominent mental health experts have warned us about the impact and the dangers of social media, which are pushing our youth to the precipice. In responding to the Harvard Youth Poll, it is quite possible that respondents were thinking about themselves and their own fragility when asked to rate the importance of ‘healthcare’ against other domains.
America’s youth live in multigenerational households. They are witnessing the ageing of two generations: their parents and their grandparents. And what they see is scary. Inexorably long wait times to see both primary care physicians and specialists, ungodly prices for medications, rural hospital closures and mountains of paperwork to get private insurance to cover drug costs. When America’s youth is being surveyed about the importance of healthcare against other prominent areas of concern, this is what they are likely thinking about.
America’s youth have been traumatised by COVID-19, new potential pandemics (H5N1), opioid/fentanyl-related overdoses, gun violence and medical misinformation. They continue to see reports about new variants of SARS-CoV-2, sobering statistics on opioid-related overdoses, grim news reports about mass shootings and are unsure who or what to believe about vaccines, medicines and overall best health practices. Healthcare has become (more) scary than it used to be and these feelings are doubtless reflected in these 2024 poll results.
If you had asked me about my feelings on healthcare ten years ago, my views would surely have been different than they are today. If you had asked me when I was under 30 years of age, it would have been even more different. That our youth is thinking about healthcare in such a seminal way is a good thing. Because the next generation must solve the many healthcare problems that this, and previous, generations have not. That our youth is thinking about healthcare in such a seminal way, because of the reasons I have outlined, is concerning.
This column appeared in the June edition of PME. Read the full issue here.
