- Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK Americans continue to exhibit a kind of split personality in their attitudes about healthcare. Ask them about the national system of funding and providing care, and they'll decry its deficiencies. Ask them about their own healthcare, and they'll generally say it's fine. Some newly released Gallup polling (fielded in the middle of last month) captures both sides of this phenomenon.

Asked to rate the quality of care they personally receive, 36 percent termed it "excellent" and 47 percent "good." Thirteen percent said it's "only fair" and 3 percent rated it as "poor." (The remaining 1 percent said the question didn't apply to them.) When asked about their "healthcare coverage" rather than healthcare itself, responses were less cheery -- but still far more positive than negative.

Twenty-six percent classified it as "excellent" and 41 percent as "good"; 19 percent called it "only fair" and 8 percent "poor," with the rest falling into the "not applicable" category. Meanwhile, a majority of respondents (58 percent) even declared themselves satisfied with "the total cost you pay for your healthcare," while 39 percent said they're dissatisfied.

The survey's array of positive responses is consistent with the fact that most respondents said they're covered by either private health insurance (60 percent) or a governmental program such as Medicare or Medicaid (29 percent). But Americans aren't oblivious to the fact that significant numbers of their compatriots lack health coverage, or that the costs are burdensome for large numbers who do have coverage. That helps explain why 14 percent of respondents believe the nation's healthcare system today is "in a state of crisis" and another 59 percent think "it has major problems."

Despite widespread satisfaction with their own care under the current setup, 41 percent favor "replacing the current healthcare system with a new government-run healthcare system," nearly matching the 49 percent who favor "maintaining the current system based mostly on private health insurance."

And while 57 percent said the "quality of healthcare in this country" is excellent or good, just 26 percent said the same about "the healthcare coverage in this country." Even fewer, 19 percent, voiced this degree of satisfaction with "the total cost of healthcare in this country."