Institute for Public Accuracy
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The largest survey ever conducted among doctors on the issue of healthcare financing reform just found that 59 percent of doctors “support government legislation to establish national health insurance,” while 32 percent oppose it and 9 percent are neutral.
Such plans typically involve a single, federally administered social insurance fund that guarantees healthcare coverage for everyone, much like Medicare currently does for seniors. The plans typically eliminate or substantially reduce the role of private insurance companies in the healthcare financing system, but still allow patients to go to the doctors of their choice.
The new findings reflect an increase of 10 percent in physician support for national health insurance since 2002, when a similar survey was conducted. The full study, which was published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, a leading medical journal, is available at: [http://www.pnhp.org/docsurvey].