Panel confidence before and after speech

During the speech, the panel also indicated their positive and negative reactions using dial meters, which showed the health care debate is still sharply divided among party lines.

Discussing the impact of the bailouts and stimulus, the President noted efforts earlier in the year had “pulled the economy back from the brink,” driving Democratic support high, and sending the Independent and Republican meters downward. Similarly, when the President brought up the costs of the Bush administration tax cuts and the cost of the Iraq war, Democrats responded enthusiastically as Independents and Republicans headed in the other direction.

Online Reaction

Outside the focus group, internet chatter related to the President’s two speeches this week, the address, and a speech to school children the day before, online sentiment for the speech was generally positive according to Nielsen Buzzmetrics. However, the school speech drew much more attention based on controversy surrounding parental and school concerns about the scope and potential partisan nature of the President speaking to school children to promote his agenda.

Viewership to last night’s address was down 38.6% from President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, which aired from approximately 9:00PM to 10:30PM.

In July, President Obama held a press conference focused on health care that drew nearly 25 million viewers.

When Sen. Edward Kennedy died late on Tuesday Aug. 25, a year after his 2008 appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, news coverage and online discussion began in earnest as soon as the Kennedy family made the announcement.

By the end of Wednesday (Aug. 26) Kennedy attracted nearly 1% of all blog buzz, according to Nielsen’s BlogPulse search engine, and by Thursday morning (Aug. 27), he was the most-discussed person in the blogosphere. His New York Times obituary was also the most-cited news story among bloggers and the phrase “Ted Kennedy dies” was the phrase used most by bloggers Aug. 26-27.

Consumers posted comments about Kennedy, not only on political and news blogs, but on celebrity blogs as well. Key political blogs where discussion took place included liberal-leaning sites the Huffington Post and Crooks & Liars as well as conservative-leaning sites Michelle Malkin and Hot Air, and differences in opinion were obvious. Comments on liberal-leaning blogs recounted Kennedy’s accomplishments as a champion for labor, the poor and for universal health care, which he called the “cause of my life.” Comments on conservative blogs were much harsher and critical of Kennedy, not only for his politics but also for his personal life.

The month prior to his death, the Senator was increasingly mentioned in conversations surrounding the passage of a health care bill as was his wish to have a successor named quickly upon his passing.

Health Insurance

Given the proposal of a public health plan, consumers were asked if they would prefer a less-expensive yet less-comprehensive public health plan subsidized by the government to a privatized insurance plan that offered more benefits and flexibility. It appears that although the private plan was the plan of choice, many of the respondents (40%) could not commit to an answer without further information about what the details of the plan would include. It is imperative that health insurance carriers start to increase their brand awareness, value proposition and targeting efforts so that consumers make the most informed decisions once a public plan becomes available.

When we drill down into the penetration of different medical insurance types, the study notes that overall medical insurance is down slightly, but dental and vision insurance are higher — an interesting finding is that for both vision and dental, it’s the employer-based coverage that is down, but individual coverage is up-so when consumers lose their coverage from work, they fill that gap on their own. Heath Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts are also both up but not from individual plan purchases. In this case, employers are increasing benefits and stepping up these offerings. The same scenario is also true for critical illness coverage.

Property and Casualty Insurance

With regard to shopping and switching coverage, some consumers kept their options open to new offers, with 46% of the respondents saying they have shopped for auto insurance in the past three years. However, only one quarter of those respondents reported actually switching carriers during that time. In addition, only 16% of residential insurance customers changed carriers in the past three years.

Most respondents stated that they would be willing to pay a little more for auto insurance if it means they get better coverage; with 52% of the participants either strongly agreeing (15%) or agreeing somewhat (37%). Interestingly, 45% of the respondents said they actually did have their auto & home insurance policies with the same insurance company.

And good news for carriers who offer both auto and residential coverage to their customers: 62% of respondents would prefer to have their auto and residential insurance at the same carrier. The majority of respondents surveyed (73% selected 8-10 on a 10-point scale where 10 is extremely likely to recommend) said they would be extremely likely to recommend their primary auto and residential insurance carrier to friends and family. Insurance companies with a referral program will likely benefit from this feeling of satisfaction and goodwill.

Life Insurance

Despite the aging population, the percentage of households with life insurance policies has decreased steadily from 2005. Individual life policies have also experienced declines (i.e., whole, universal life and variable life) but individual term policies remained constant between 2007 and 2009 at 23%. Reasons for this could be that fewer employers are offering life insurance as part of their benefit packages or due to rising unemployment.

Agent recommendations and covering final/funeral expenses topped the list of reasons why individual life insurance policies were purchased. However, future channel preference for both types of policies moved away from the agent. More consumers want to purchase life insurance through direct channels and their employer compared to 2007.

Insurance companies will have to increase relationships with employers, offer alternative direct channel options and provide clear educational materials to make up for the lack of the personal relationship with the agent-particularly when trying to influence the decision to purchase these policies for the first time. With penetration rates for life insurance policies declining, insurance carriers will need to deal with multiple issues to grow this business, including a challenging economy, lack of importance as part of retirement and investment planning.

Looking at 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) across the U.S., Nielsen Claritas demographic data shows that just over 800,000 households (roughly 0.7%) earn more than $500,000. Those that make $250,000-500,000 account for an additional 1.6% for a total of 2.3% of homes that could be considered “affluent.”

Where The Wealthy Are

The top 10 most affluent markets (San Francisco, New York, W. Palm Beach, Fl., Washington D.C., Palm Springs, CA, Ft. Myers/Naples, Fl., Boston, Santa Barbara, CA, Los Angeles, and San Diego) identified in the dark green [see full graphic] account for 42.6% of all households in the U.S. earning more than $500,000. These affluent households are twice as concentrated in these markets than the USA overall. In these markets, about 1.5% have incomes $500,000+ and 2.8% have incomes $250,000-$500,000 annually.

… And Where The Uninsured Are

Not surprisingly, many of the same markets that have a large majority of high-income households also tend to be the most insured as identified by the light blue [see full graphic]. San Francisco (with 85% estimated insured) leads the way, whereas Greenville, MS (66%) registers as the least insured metropolitan area.

Markets with the most insured households tend towards the major metro areas of the coasts and the Great Lakes, whereas markets with a higher incidence of uninsured households tend toward the secondary metropolitan areas, small towns and rural markets of the South and interior heartland.

This analysis has been based on a likelihood or a rate for being insured and uninsured rather than an absolute number of households without insurance. So while San Francisco has the lowest rate of uninsured, they will certainly have more uninsured households than Greenville, MS. However, even taking market size into account, Nielsen estimates there are roughly 8.3 million uninsured households in the top 27 high income markets (where 60% of all affluent households are) versus 15.4 million uninsured households in the lesser affluent markets. The gap becomes more apparent when you look at the top 50 high-income DMAs – those top 50 markets contain 81% of households with incomes of $500,000+, but only 34% of the uninsured.

Were a “high income” surtax employed to fund universal coverage, there would likely be a “wealth transfer” from the large, metro markets of the East and West to the smaller, second-tier markets of the deep South, the Mississippi valley, and central plains. [See graphic for side by side comparison].

Learn more about Nielsen Claritas.

In a continued push for congressional support of health care reform President Obama held his fourth prime time press conference on Wednesday July 22, 2009. The conference was carried live from 8:00PM to approximately 9:00PM on 11 networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 24,682,519 viewers and had a combined household rating of 16.3. The networks carrying the press conference were ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision*, Telemundo*, BBC-A, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

Viewing to last night’s press conference was down 14% from his April 29 press conference and down 50% from his first primetime conference on February 9.

According to the survey, half of respondents said that better healthcare infrastructure is the top social issue that they believe corporations should tackle, followed by fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and cancer (38%) and education and adult literacy (30%).  Furthermore, 86 percent identified “countering terrorism” as a CSR initiative that should be taken up by corporate India.  Environmental protection is now expected and no longer identified as a CSR initiative by respondents.

More than half of respondents felt that corporations are honest toward their CSR activities, while one-third are skeptical of the motivations behind CSR, believing them to be simply publicity stunts.

“The public’s expectations of companies are on the increase as stakeholders see the significant impact they are having in various spheres, be it in educations, healthcare infrastructure or environmental conservation.  Their confidence in organizations undertaking socially beneficial projects is greater than their confidence in other channels that try to bring about positive social change,” said Vatsala Pant, associate director, consumer research at Nielsen.

The Nielsen Corporate Image Monitor is an annual survey of 1,800 people from a range of occupations in the top seven metropolitan areas.  Stakeholders range from the general public to media and policy makers.

In comparison, last week’s debate between Senators McCain and Obama — the candidates’ second – received a 42.0 household rating in the top 55 local TV markets.  The candidates’ first debate on September 26 received a 34.7 household rating in the top 55 markets.

Wednesday night’s championship baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies — aired by FOX, instead of the debate – may have impacted the debate’s ratings.  In the Philadelphia market, where 43.7% of local households tuned in for last week’s presidential debate, the debate drew 32% of local households, while the baseball game drew 32.3%. 

In the Los Angeles market, 10.2% of local households watched the game, while 29.2% of households watched the debate — down slightly from the previous debate, in which 33.7% of L.A. homes tuned in.

Among the top 56 local metered markets, the Baltimore market had the largest TV audience, with a household rating of 49.3, while the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, California market again had the lowest household rating: 28.1. 

One rating point equals 1% of the total TV audience in a given market.

View ratings for Nielsen’s 56 top local metered markets.

Coverage of the final debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama aired on NBC, CBS, ABC, BBCA, CSPAN, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC, UNIVISION, CNN, and FOX News Channel.

National ratings for Wednesday night’s debate will be available from Nielsen Thursday afternoon.

The Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance combines Nielsen’s knowledge of the consumer health and media space with Wolters Kluwer Health’s expertise in prescribed pharmaceuticals. 

Nielsen’s data assets include television and online ratings, consumer packaged goods marketing information, and others, while Wolters Kluwer Health brings de-identified longitudinal patient and dispensed pharmacy data. 

A joint consulting team, with members from both companies, has also been created.

View the full press release.