What the American public wants in health care.

W HAT does the American public want in health care? This recurring question confronts every health official. However, because research in this area has been too limited to provide a scientific answer based on established fact, each health official must conjure up his own set of measuring devices. Based on his own experience and that of others in the field, and aided by a sizable portion of luck, he may be successful in reading the public's collective pulse. But the health officer's responsibility extends much further than that of merely satisfying the wants of his public. And, indeed, he may often find that the public's wants are not always the same as its greatest needs. At this juncture the health official, with his personal popularity at stake, must talke a stand to elncourage the public to direct its energies to those programs requiring support, thereby assuming his responsibility to lead rather than merely to follow public preference.