59% of doctors support national health insurance program - only 32% oppose

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday.

The survey suggests that opinions have changed substantially since the last survey in 2002 and as the country debates serious changes to the health care system.

Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.

"Many claim to speak for physicians and represent their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support national health insurance," said Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who led the study.

...

The Indiana survey found that 83 percent of psychiatrists, 69 percent of emergency medicine specialists, 65 percent of pediatricians, 64 percent of internists, 60 percent of family physicians and 55 percent of general surgeons favor a national health insurance plan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/...=22&sp=true

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

They see the gravy train coming. To get on the government dole, what a deal.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Don,

You actually think doctors will make more if health care is nationalized? Maybe that's why so many doctors move to the US from Canada.

[HAL 9000 96]

Awesome. Doctors actually thinking more of their patients in line with the patients...

Or maybe is it that they are also sick of Insurance companies making patients sicker by the year?

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

Don,

You actually think doctors will make more if health care is nationalized? Maybe that's why so many doctors move to the US from Canada.

Actually Troll I don't, I think that they think they will. I think it will absolutely destroy our health care system, with the doctors' eventually coming to the realization that there is no money in it after the government rations it. But truth and perception don't always intersect.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Don,

You actually think doctors will make more if health care is nationalized? Maybe that's why so many doctors move to the US from Canada.

That's the case in the UK too - you make more in the private system. Dentistry is pretty much all private over there.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Don,

You actually think doctors will make more if health care is nationalized? Maybe that's why so many doctors move to the US from Canada.

Actually Troll I don't, I think that they think they will. I think it will absolutely destroy our health care system, with the doctors' eventually coming to the realization that there is no money in it after the government rations it. But truth and perception don't always intersect.

True enough.

Could it be, though, that it is your perception that is off?

Who is more likely to percieve something other than the truth about our health care system?

A group of people who work, day in and day out, in the middle of it all?

Or a poster on VJ who parrots the Republican party line?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Not having to deal with the bastards at the insurance companies and all their silly, contradictory rules. I can see how that might make life easier for a physician.

[Dan J 277]

At the Senate District Convention I went to, Single payer health care was a much bigger issue than the economy as a whole.

The biggest issues on peoples minds were in no particular order:

Univeral Healthcare:

Ending the Iraq War

Foreclosures

Environment

Secondary would be:

Improving Education

Urban Revitalization (The senate district did encompass one of the poorer minneapolis neighborhoods)

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

Don,

You actually think doctors will make more if health care is nationalized? Maybe that's why so many doctors move to the US from Canada.

Actually Troll I don't, I think that they think they will. I think it will absolutely destroy our health care system, with the doctors' eventually coming to the realization that there is no money in it after the government rations it. But truth and perception don't always intersect.

True enough.

Could it be, though, that it is your perception that is off?

Who is more likely to perceive something other than the truth about our health care system?

A group of people who work, day in and day out, in the middle of it all?

Or a poster on VJ who parrots the Republican party line?

I am a conservative first and foremost. I am dedicated to free market principals. My home right now is the Republican party. This may not always be the case. The way it is going it may change. I have a feeling if you polled the doctors in this poll about party affiliation I bet the Democratic party would be dominant. Doctors at heart are concerned about people, I am sure that their expertise most likely does not extend to financing of the health care system.

Maybe they cannot see the forest for the trees.

I am in favor of a total overhaul of the whole system that uses free market principles to lower costs of the system not just find another method of stuffing money into a black hole. I want people to know what they are spending on health care and have competition drive down costs. Through health savings plans and such or whatever it takes. If we can get rid of the insurance companies in a free market way I am down with that too.

Government health system will only drive up costs and ration services.

Ok #6 lets use a similar model to the dental services in the UK. What is the specifics of that model? Can you enlighten me on that? If they are all private what is the system?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Doctors at heart are concerned about people, I am sure that their expertise most likely does not extend to financing of the health care system.

So your typical medical practice, a business of which an MD is typically the owner, does not get involved in the financial aspects of the system?

Are you serious?

Have you actually worked at a doctors office? You wouldn't be saying that if you did.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Ok #6 lets use a similar model to the dental services in the UK. What is the specifics of that model? Can you enlighten me on that? If they are all private what is the system?

They are not all private - but these days you will have a hard time finding a dental practice that takes NHS patients. Certain dental procedures are also not available on NHS. There is dental insurance to pay for private care - but its quite expensive and not all that accessible on lower income levels.

[Don_Joy's Prince 0]

Doctors at heart are concerned about people, I am sure that their expertise most likely does not extend to financing of the health care system.

So your typical medical practice, a business of which an MD is typically the owner, does not get involved in the financial aspects of the system?

Are you serious?

Have you actually worked at a doctors office? You wouldn't be saying that if you did.

I would say that is more likely the 32% that own their practice and not the 59% that may be employed by the large hospitals.

Listen Troll, I don't care what kind of anecdotal scenario you give me, I am talking about laws of economics and the history of government run programs.

Let's review:

Social security- Absolutely broke, I will never get out what I have paid in, the politicians have used it as their own personal piggy bank to buy votes.

Medicare / Medicaid- Absolutely broke even before the prescription drug program, mismanagement and fraud have made it another black hole for my tax dollars to disappear into.

Welfare- This program has destroyed the black family by paying the mothers to get rid of their men and replacing them with the government. Which caused the black children to grow up without fathers and made the boys angry without role models to guide them. Also this program has funded the illicit drug industry in the US with all the addicts that sit around and collect their checks and trade them for drugs. I have known them personally.

etc. etc. etc

Now with this kind of track record what makes you think that politicians will not use the national health care system as another cash cow to buy votes and obtain power. At the same time driving the whole thing into the ground and driving up the cost that I am responsible for.

What kind of Pollyanna expects anything different to happen this time? Only this time people will die.