"Physician Views on the Public Health Insurance Option and Medicare Expansions"

The Link

Very interesting take on the issue at hand that is often ignored, specifically what the Doctors think.

A RWJF survey summarized in the September 14, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine shows that 62.9 percent of physicians nationwide support proposals to expand health care coverage that include both public and private insurance options—where people under the age of 65 would have the choice of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan (like Medicare) or in private plans. The survey shows that just 27.3 percent of physicians support a new program that does not include a public option and instead provides subsidies for low-income people to purchase private insurance. Only 9.6 percent of doctors nationwide support a system where a Medicare-like public program is created in lieu of any private insurance. A majority of physicians (58%) also support expanding Medicare eligibility to those between the ages of 55 and 64.

This is clearly a fairly large majority of support for the types of reform and the 'public option' that the government has been proposing. Personally I have quite a bit of faith in doctors ability to determine what is going to work best to make health-care attainable by 'we the people'.

In every region of the country, a majority of physicians supported a combination of public and private options, as did physicians who identified themselves as primary care providers, surgeons, or other medical subspecialists. Among those who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options.

Telling to say the least.

Enjoy.

How interesting. A survey done by a group in favor of the public option finds the majority of doctors polled is in favor of the public option.