Economy Outweighs Healthcare on People's Minds, Says New Study - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

If you are a news junkie like me then you39ve been following the raging debate about health care Perhaps like me you39ve also been wondering whether the town hall meetings are really representative of the conversations taking place on Main Street Is health care a topic that people across the country are talking about or only a smaller number of activists on both sides that are turning out to express their viewsAccording to ongoing tracking of word of mouth by the Keller Fay Group about 1 in 4 Americans 18 to 69 years old 52 million people were having conversations in July about health insurance and the health care system This represents a 30 increase from the 40 million 20 of the total adult population who were talking about the topic back in April May and JuneSo people are both tuning in more and speaking up moreTo put this in context it39s also important to know that out of 17 issues that are part of our word of mouth tracking health care ranks 8th A few months ago health ranked 10th so it is moving up the ladder as the amount of conversation increases But it39s still not the top tier issue for most people Higher on the list of people39s daytoday conversations are such topics as quotconcern about your own financial situationquot quotways to cut back on your expensesquot and quotthe overall state of the economyquot as well as quotnutrition dieting and healthy eatingquotWhat is the demographic profile of the health care talkers Relative to their proportion of the population as a whole it39s women more than men consumers 40 more than those under 40 and middle income consumers amp8211 30k to 60kThe group that is most active in talking about health insurance and health care is the Conversation Catalystsamp8482 aka word of mouth quotinfluencersquot Among this 10 segment of the population who are almost always more involved in conversation than others both talking as well as listening 42 have had a conversation in the past day amp8211 well above any demographic segment and up from 29 in midJune But even among this group health care is not a top tier topic of conversation placing 10th out of 17 we trackPerhaps the most interesting word of mouth trend is among the viewers of cable news amp8211 CNN MSNBC and Fox News The audience for all three news networks is more likely than the average to be talking about health care and has been for some time And right now the levels of talk are identical for viewers of all three networks amp8211 a dead heat at 36 But it hasn39t been this way for long Back in mid April Fox News viewers were the least likely to be talking about health care while MSNBC viewers were the most likely All three are talking more since then but the increase in talk among Fox News viewers has been the sharpest amp8211 up from 21 to 36 over the past four monthsWhile things are a bit quieter now as the summer comes to a close they are certain to heat up again in Washington when Congress reconvenes in September We39ll be keeping our ears to the ground listening to the conversations on Main Street as wellEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Ed Keller MediaBizBloggers

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Economy Outweighs Healthcare on People's Minds, Says New Study - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

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Economy Outweighs Healthcare on People's Minds, Says New Study - Ed Keller - MediaBizBloggers

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