59% of US Doctors Support Universal Healthcare

In my opinion, one of the biggest scandals in the USA is the number of American citizens who lack basic healthcare insurance coverage and/or access to preventative medical treatment and diagnostic testing. As an employer, the amounts paid by both employers and employees for health insurance is an ever increasing burden. In the past, one of the lobby groups who opposed some form of universal or national healthcare system was the nation's doctors who believed that it would reduce their incomes. Now that tide appears to be turning, leaving I suspect insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers as the leading opponents. Why the opposition? Because it could mean a reduction in the obscene denials by insurance companies of treatment coverage and almost unbelieveably expensive drug costs. Here are highlights from a Raw Story article (http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Doctors_support_universal_health_care_survey_0401.html):

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.

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.

"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."

"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.