OBJECTIVES: Objective was to investigate whether persons with illness experience (personally or through medical knowledge) use a smaller proportion of the VAS to value health states than persons without illness experience. METHODS: The study consisted of a survey in a patient group: 1) hearing impaired persons (N=96), and in three groups without personal illness experience (N=26 each): 2) persons without illness experience, 3) persons with medical experience with visual impairment, and 4) persons with medical experience with hearing impairment. All subjects were asked to value the hypothetical health states “asthma” (mild state) and “heart failure” (severe state) on a generic VAS. Results were tested for between-group differences and influence of gender and education level using ANOVA. RESULTS: The valuations for “asthma” varied from 0.46 (sd 0.18) in the group with medical experience with hearing impairment to 0.67 (sd 0.20) in the patient group. The valuations differed statistically significantly between the groups (p=0.002). The valuations for the severe marker state “heart failure” ranged from 0.19 (sd 0.19) in the patient group to 0.24 (sd 0.17) in the group with medical experience with hearing impairment. The valuations did not differ statistically significantly between the groups (p=0.603). The patient group used the largest proportion of the VAS (0.49), and the group with medical experience with hearing impairment the smallest proportion (0.21). These proportions differed statistically significantly between the groups (p=0.002). Gender and education level did not influence the results. CONCLUSIONS: The result did not confirm that patients use a smaller proportion of the VAS than persons without illness experience. Since the valuations for “heart” were equal among the groups, this was largely because the patients had higher valuations for the mild health state, which is not in concordance with earlier findings that personal illness experience leads to lower valuations for better health states.