Universal Health Care

[LHardy]

Doctors support universal health care: survey


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

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.

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.


"As doctors, we find that our patients suffer because of increasing deductibles, co-payments, and restrictions on patient care," said Dr. Ronald Ackermann, who worked on the study with Carroll. "More and more, physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to this problem."


Insurance companies, retailers and other employers have joined forces with unions and other interest groups to propose their own plans.


"Across the board, more physicians feel that our fragmented and for-profit insurance system is obstructing good patient care, and a majority now support national insurance as the remedy," Ackermann said in a statement.


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.


The researchers said they believe the survey was representative of the 800,000 U.S. medical doctors.

Of course these doctors would support a national insurance program. That way they will not have to take a pay cut. Instead, we should allow the market too bear what is the real cost of health care. With a national insurance program the medical industry will have strategically placed itself as a dependent on the government.


What a fateful move.


The US already spends nearly 16% of GDP on health care. With a mandatory national insurance program the taxpayer will hoist most the burden. That will be middle class America pulling the elephants share. Sacrificing for so all will receive crappy service and a managed health system that will tell you when you are or are not ill.


Not to mention that more of your take home pay would once again supply a free ride for others. Others whose choices we are all being asked to burden.
The baby-boomers have come home to roust, wanting those behind them to pay for their retirement and their health care. That will put our health care sucking about 20% of GDP and nearly ¾ of the Federal budget will become dedicated to social programs.(social security, welfare, medicade)


If a doctor wishes to practice his art, then the market not the government needs to lay the ground for reasonable fees. The government can not run itself. Many have said so. Why would anyone want our government running health care?
In fact, I propose remove government subsidies from our health care and end HMO’s.

[Yorku]

Of course these doctors would support a national insurance program. That way they will not have to take a pay cut. Instead, we should allow the market too bear what is the real cost of health care. With a national insurance program the medical industry will have strategically placed itself as a dependent on the government.


What a fateful move.


The US already spends nearly 16% of GDP on health care. With a mandatory national insurance program the taxpayer will hoist most the burden. That will be middle class America pulling the elephants share. Sacrificing for so all will receive crappy service and a managed health system that will tell you when you are or are not ill.


Not to mention that more of your take home pay would once again supply a free ride for others. Others whose choices we are all being asked to burden.
The baby-boomers have come home to roust, wanting those behind them to pay for their retirement and their health care. That will put our health care sucking about 20% of GDP and nearly ¾ of the Federal budget will become dedicated to social programs.(social security, welfare, medicade)


If a doctor wishes to practice his art, then the market not the government needs to lay the ground for reasonable fees. The government can not run itself. Many have said so. Why would anyone want our government running health care?
In fact, I propose remove government subsidies from our health care and end HMO’s.

I can tell you that under Universal Health Care, physician compensation would drop dramatically for specialty care. Notice the particular specialties that were included in the Indiana survey - Family Med, Peds, ER, and surgery. Those specialties are the ones that deal with the highest number of uninsured patients. ER would be at the top of that list because most uninsured people use the ER as their primary "physician".

That said, If compensation were the only factor, I would imagine that the number of physicians in favor of nationalized health care would drop significantly if all of the specialty fields were included in that survey as well.

I, like you, am 100% against government-sponsored healthcare. NOTHING the government does is efficient. Why anyone would delude themselves into thinking that government involvement in healthcare would be any different is beyond me.

It's not a popular belief, but I also believe that health care is a priviledge, not a right. Nobody is guaranteed health insurance. If you have a job that doesn't have health insurance benefits and the government says "that's okay, we'll give it to you", doesn't that effectively remove the impetus to improve yourself and get another job?

[Sylvan]

Yep. The babyboomers are coming around to market and everyone knows it. Universal healthcare will allow any moron to open a doctors office, keep his schedule booked for months, if not years. And guarentee him a paycheck to support his families over-abundance.

But its even MORE than that! Its an entire ecconomy between the pharmaceauticles and the foods, and the equipment, and the nursing homes, all the way to the graveyards and the headstone makers, the churchs and the caterers, the furnace operators and the furnace fuel supply companies.

The babyboomers will get a system to process them like beef cattle!!!

[Yorku]

Yep. The babyboomers are coming around to market and everyone knows it. Universal healthcare will allow any moron to open a doctors office, keep his schedule booked for months, if not years. And guarentee him a paycheck to support his families over-abundance.

But its even MORE than that! Its an entire ecconomy between the pharmaceauticles and the foods, and the equipment, and the nursing homes, all the way to the graveyards and the headstone makers, the churchs and the caterers, the furnace operators and the furnace fuel supply companies.

The babyboomers will get a system to process them like beef cattle!!!

I'm thinking of doing funerals out of my home. Mine is one of the few towns that still allows backyard fires, so cremation is not a problem.

[Sylvan]

I'm thinking of doing funerals out of my home. Mine is one of the few towns that still allows backyard fires, so cremation is not a problem.

Let me know if you would be interested in an apprentice.

[Eat My Gun]

Doctors aren't economists...