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Support for Medical Use Approval and Insurance Coverage Varies Greatly for Different Medical Treatments

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - April 30, 2007-- Most U.S. adults support approving the use of medical treatments and procedures that can impact people's quality of life, including birth control treatments, in-vitro fertilization, drugs to treat erectile dysfunction and improve memory and to help with weight loss. Large majorities also believe these types of treatments should be covered by health insurance. Support for approval and coverage diminishes for treatments that primarily impact people's personal appearance, such as drugs to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, plastic surgery to help people look younger and growth hormones to help children grow taller.

These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,402 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, conducted by Harris Interactive(r) between March 20 and 22, 2007 for The Wall Street Journal Online's Health Industry Edition (www.wsj.com/health).

Approval for Medical Use

Strong majorities support the approval of medical treatments such as birth-control pills and other birth-control procedures (88%), drugs that improve memory (77%) and in-vitro fertilization (76%) if they are generally safe and effective. Men are more likely than women to believe that treatments impacting people's personal appearance, such as drugs that help with weight loss (68% vs. 67%, respectively) or plastic surgery (52% vs. 46%) should be approved.

What Should Insurance Cover?

Eight in ten (81%) adults believe that birth-control pills and other birth-control procedures should be covered by health insurance, at least in some part and two-thirds (63%) support coverage for in-vitro fertilization. Women are more likely than men to feel that birth-control treatments (88% vs. 72%) and
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