In April 2017, the Kaiser Family Foundation in partnership with The Economist released the End-of-Life Medical Care poll, a cross-country survey of adults in Japan, Italy, the United States, and Brazil. The survey highlights people’s views and experiences related to aging, role of government and families in helping with medical costs, and wishes for end-of-life medical treatments.
Study findings show that majorities in all countries except the U.S. feel that government should bear the financial responsibility for medical care of the aging population. Views in the U.S. are more evenly split between those who say the responsibility should fall mostly on individuals and families and those who say it’s the responsibility of the government (source: Kaiser Family Foundation).
Outside of financial responsibility, most people across the surveyed countries see a large role for families in helping aging family members. Solid majorities say that it is the duty of children to help take care of their parents’ needs as they get older.
View the topline results in iPoll here. For more resources on aging, visit our Topics at a Glance: Seniors page, offering prepared iPoll and dataset searches, interpretive analysis, related datasets, and data charts.
Anna Arzrumtsyan is a data processor at the Roper Center.