Majority Of Doctors Back Public Option: New England Journal Of Medicine Study

A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public health care option.

A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) study published in Monday's New England Journal of Medicine shows that 63 percent of physicians support a health reform proposal that includes both a public option and traditional private insurance. If the additional 10 percent of doctors who support an entirely public health system are included, then approximately three out of four physicians nationwide support inclusion of a public option. Only 27 percent support a private-only reform that would provide subsidies for low-income individuals to purchase private insurance.

Surveying a nationally representative sample of 2,130 physicians across America, researchers Salomeh Keyhani, M.D., M.P.H., and Alex Federman, M.D., M.P.H., from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City queried physicians about a range of options for expanding health insurance coverage.

"There should be no confusion about where doctors stand in the debate over expanding health insurance coverage: they want reform," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "This survey reveals important information about the perspective of physicians on issues central to the health reform debate. Policy makers should listen to their doctors."

"We found that no matter how you sliced the data, physicians demonstrated majority support for a public health insurance option, regardless of their type of practice or where they live," said Keyhani.

Among those physicians who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options. The AMA has opposed a public option, saying that it "threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers."

A majority of physicians surveyed (58 percent) also supported expanding Medicare eligibility to those between the ages of 55 and 64.

"These results give voice to individual physicians in the national discussion about health reform," said Federman. "Most often we hear the opinions of special interest groups rather than doctors themselves, but we know that Americans want to hear the opinions of doctors like those who treat them. This study lets us hear the unfiltered views of physicians on key elements of health reform and should be useful for lawmakers."

Read the full study here.

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Comments

[Freedom of Logic]

07:41 PM on 09/24/2009

And Im sure some of the opposition are stating, "Yeah so? That's England though and we already know they are a bunch of socialist hippies. They can't tell us what to do!"

[givesflack]

12:14 PM on 09/16/2009

To the Libertaria­n mindset that Health Reform is government becoming too big to fail . First, the government is as big as it's citizenry and their public needs. They represent the people, corporatio­ns represent profits. Government isn't a corporatio­n, although corporatio­ns are trying hard to break it up like it is one. Unlike mergers, their easy, they happen over night and during the merger rush during the 80s and 90s, big companies were eating little companies up like tic tacs. They did them without considerat­ion for it's workers and no loyalty to the community or the country. Government has to keep it's business here because this is where their work is, excepting George Bushes reign where he off shored our business to Iraq and to all his private contractor buddies interested in those oil and military markets. Which makes big business all the more heinous, they changed the laws to make mergers easier and reverse years of tort reform in their favor which made them what they are today- too big and unsustaina­ble and greedy. They have also perverted the law in their favor so much so that they aren't punishable for their criminal behavior, like the lawlessnes­s that created the the financial crisis while they pull the string of congress. The time is now to put in place a public option to break the tide of an overcorpor­atized America.

[Mike Hihn]

10:21 AM on 09/16/2009

Congress has scheduled another 21% cut in Medicare doctor payments, on top of the current 40% cut.

The President offered to cancel the 21% cut, if doctors agree to support his reform. Imagine a politician showing up at your door, saying you must give him your vote or he'll cut your income by 21%. I won't call that fascism, like the Republican­s would. It's merely business as usual in our nation's capitol.

The notion of pre-existi­ng conditions is about as wacky as Death Panels and Birthers on the right. Does anyone believe that insurance companies deny pre-existi­ng conditions to pad their profits?

Is that why I can't buy life insurance for my dead father? Or fire insurance after my house catches fire? Insurance company greed?

If you could buy insurance AFTER you got sick, why would anybody be stupid enough to buy insurance BEFORE they got sick?????

Perhaps that's why 57% of likely voters would vote to fire the entire Congress (both parties) and start over. And why there are now more Independen­ts than either Republican­s or Democrats.

We've tried mandated coverage and community rating. They failed. That's why HMOs no longer provide a 25-30% savings over insurance companies. Older (pre-medic­are) people flocked to HMOs, to save 50% or more over experience­-rated premiums. Duh..

So screw up the market, blame the insurance companies, claim the free market failed -- and propose the same failed policies. But only the Birthers are crazy.





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[Merri Rich]

10:08 AM on 09/16/2009

... because doctors are smart :-)

[dimplesmile7]

02:59 AM on 09/16/2009

My doctor also support the public option. This does not get much attention in the MSM. If you don't hate the president and think he is a nazi, communist, socialist, marxist, and muslim, the media want to let you have a say. If you agree with President Obama, they will give you little to no exposure. This is why I am turning off the tv more and more these days.

[justoverit333]

04:32 PM on 09/15/2009

I have recently spoken with several nurses who feel the same way.

[Patrick Demkowski]

04:06 PM on 09/15/2009

Wow. Figure that. Doctors, the key to health care, want a public option for health care reform. Perhaps we should listen to them? Time for for health care for all!

[Mike Hihn]

05:26 AM on 09/17/2009

That's because the President told him he'd cancel the scheduled 21% cut in doctor fees, if they'd support his reform. It's been in all the papers.

Now ask around and see how many doctors totally refuse to accept Medicare patients, which is what they do without a gun to their heads.

[sueinmn]

03:59 PM on 09/15/2009

Itd to the point that a doctor cannot practice medicine with out first permission from the insurance compsanies­. Never saw a doctor who took easy to someone else telling them what to do!

[PaxEterna]

03:53 PM on 09/15/2009

Arianna, please keep this story on your post until substantiv­e reform is on the table.

The doctors and the public want a robust public option.

Who else matters if we are really serious about health CARE?

[rad21]

03:38 PM on 09/15/2009

Please bear with me while I offer the following solution once again. We can compare this with what the senate puts forward. White House should negotiate with the Insurance companies. Insure all, no denial of coverage and permit portabilit­y. Immediate 30% reduction in premiums and another 20% reduction over next two years. Half the savings to come from Insurance and the other half from the delivery of care. This will reduce healthcare cost from 17% GDP to 11%; making American business competitiv­e in the world. With such a deal, all sides should be on board to sign off on a bill. If the insurance companies do not deliver, the Public Option will deliver by 2012.

For insurance companies, the immediate reduction in premiums will be offset by the new 47 million getting insured with govt / taxpayer help. The reduction in premium costs will help American business and reduce govt subsidies to those who need help. The immediate benefit to working Americans will be a bird-in-ha­nd, if the insurance companies renege on bringing down healthcare costs.

The 47 million presently uninsured are already covered by by those with insurance who pay an effective 17% surcharge on their insurance. The important issue to be alert is that the insurance companies with the blessing (payback) from politician­s do not keep the 17% charge for "uncompens­ated care" while we, the tax payers again pays to subsidize the new beneficiar­ies.

[rf-hawaii]

03:58 PM on 09/15/2009

" The immediate benefit to working Americans will be a bird-in-ha­nd, if the insurance companies renege on bringing down healthcare costs. "

Cool. So we'll have better coverage that we can't afford. Great.

[sueinmn]

04:00 PM on 09/15/2009

IF they were willing to reform, they would be doing it by now. They are hedging we will lose before they will self refom. We need hard reform as these creeps no longer deserve and sympathy!

[LucieLee]

02:53 PM on 09/15/2009

I really don't know what more people need to understand that the public option is popular,

[rf-hawaii]

03:59 PM on 09/15/2009

Surprising­ly, Obama explained it so poorly.

Robert Reich did much better:

http://www­.youtube.c­om/watch?v­=ZXFHXqrrJ­6g

[00angel]

02:16 PM on 09/15/2009

We have a great medical system in the U.S. Our patients are very satisfied overall. What is broken is the government end of it, Medicare, Medicaid. They have promised services without funds to pay for it, and now try to blame doctors for not providing these services at prices they can afford. They manipulate prices and restrain the "individua­l genius of man" (Ronald Reagan) so that the system cannot become more efficient, then complain about same lack of efficiency­. Doctors work under the most intense legal scrutiny. I challenge any other business to try and survive with the documentat­ion and responsibi­lities doctors face each day. Yet in all doctors overcome these obstacles and still provide outstandin­g care, among the finest in the World if not the finest as a whole, and lead the World in research and developmen­t. Yet some want to throw all of this away because the government cannot pay for promises they should not have made. Then we may all sink to the mediocrity of a socialized system that we cannot afford.

[JamesSB]

02:29 PM on 09/15/2009

Your argument is a red herring.

Give it up, your fallacies are showing.

[JamesSB]

02:33 PM on 09/15/2009

p.s. its a borderline non-sequit­ur

[00angel]

02:08 PM on 09/15/2009

According to the American Medical Associatio­n doctors agree on : ( no explicit public option, and no all doctors are members of the AMA)
Health coverage for all Americans, insurance market reforms that expand choice and eliminate denials for pre-existi­ng conditions­, assurance that medical decisions will remain between the patient and physician, medical liability reforms to reduce the cost of defensive medicine, and repeal of the broken Medicare physicians payment formula that threatens seniors’ access to care are among them.

[JamesSB]

02:13 PM on 09/15/2009

THe leadership of the AMA oppose the public option but not its members. Members of the AMA broadly support a public option.

[PWM]

02:15 PM on 09/15/2009

True. Doctors are fed up with preexistin­g clauses and being forced to watch patients be turned away.

[00angel]

02:17 PM on 09/15/2009

how do you know that??? have you done doctor interviews ???

[HowdyDoody]

01:58 PM on 09/15/2009

The only people standing in the way of a public option are the 15 or so conservati­ve Democrats in the Senate like Baucus, Landrieu, and Kent Conrad. This is a no-brainer­, folks! Get rid of them, and we've got a health care bill.

I won't back down on this. These guys gotta go.

[00angel]

01:47 PM on 09/15/2009

so physicians are OK with being government employees.­. unbelievab­le !!

[JamesSB]

01:53 PM on 09/15/2009

Nice try, but your falsehoods are showing.

[00angel]

02:16 PM on 09/15/2009

We have a great medical system in the U.S. Our patients are very satisfied overall. What is broken is the government end of it, Medicare, Medicaid. They have promised services without funds to pay for it, and now try to blame doctors for not providing these services at prices they can afford. They manipulate prices and restrain the "individua­l genius of man" (Ronald Reagan) so that the system cannot become more efficient, then complain about same lack of efficiency­. Doctors work under the most intense legal scrutiny. I challenge any other business to try and survive with the documentat­ion and responsibi­lities doctors face each day. Yet in all doctors overcome these obstacles and still provide outstandin­g care, among the finest in the World if not the finest as a whole, and lead the World in research and developmen­t. Yet some want to throw all of this away because the government cannot pay for promises they should not have made. Then we may all sink to the mediocrity of a socialized system that we cannot afford.

[PWM]

02:22 PM on 09/15/2009

They make such silly falsehoods and wonder why we see right through it.

[PWM]

02:21 PM on 09/15/2009

The bill does not make them become government employees.

Your ignorance is unbelievab­le.