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A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public heal

jackalope

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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.

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

This doesn't surprise me at all. So, the majority of the public wants a public option, the majority of doctors want a public option, but the right and the insurance industry doesn't?

Why are we listening to them again?
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Given how much I hear doctors complaining about what a pain dealing with Medicare is, I find the conclusions of this "study" highly dubious.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Given how much I hear doctors complaining about what a pain dealing with Medicare is, I find the conclusions of this "study" highly dubious.

I would imagine a New England Journal of Medicine study is serious.


edit: sorry, published in the NEJM. It's a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation survey.
 
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Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

I would imagine a New England Journal of Medicine study is serious.


edit: sorry, published in the NEJM. It's a Robert Woods Johnson Foundation survey.


:shrug: Meh. You never know what studies or polls to take seriously anymore. As Churchill said, "There are lies; damned lies; and then there are statistics." I'd have to research the RWJF and their origins and publications to see what sort of bias they have; then I'd have to dig into the study itself and look at the methodology and raw data, before I could know whether to take it seriously or not.

So instead, in the spirit of the shallow hyperpartisanship that seems to have infested DP lately, I figured I'd just denigrate it with an anecdotal opinion and move on. :mrgreen:
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

harumph ....
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Given how much I hear doctors complaining about what a pain dealing with Medicare is, I find the conclusions of this "study" highly dubious.

Yeah, because dealing with insurance companies is such a piece of cake. :doh

Do you know that 30-40% of your current insured healthcare cost is administrative???
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Given how much I hear doctors complaining about what a pain dealing with Medicare is, I find the conclusions of this "study" highly dubious.

Cause you are located in Dixie, I should think. Our Machais hospital is begging Medicare to take them back.

Oh well, why did we have that war, anyway?
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

I bet they hope it covers illegal aliens as well. That way they can actually get paid for their work.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Given how much I hear doctors complaining about what a pain dealing with Medicare is, I find the conclusions of this "study" highly dubious.

Most doctors in my area refuse to accept most private insurance, the issues with them are so bad. They even prefer Medicare over them. As does my practice.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

From the study:

Despite support for Medicare expansions and for a public option similar in design to Medicare, physicians preferred private plans to the traditional Medicare program in three areas (Table 3). The majority of physicians (62%) prefer private plans to Medicare in terms of adequacy of payments while only 9.2% preferred Medicare. Thirty-three percent of respondents believed that private insurance was better in terms of paperwork and administrative hassles compared to 28.8% of respondents who believed Medicare was superior. Physicians also believed private insurance is superior to Medicare in terms of timeliness of reimbursements (31.9% vs. 23.6%).

Also:

"In terms of your overall experience, which is better?"

Private insurance: 46.4%
Same: 22.0%
Medicare: 21.2%

Furthermore, it's worth stepping back and thinking for a moment about what this study is actually proving. Is anyone really surprised that doctors would generally favor a health care proposal that would increase their customer base? The main effect of the hybrid plan would be to add tens of millions of people to the pile of people already fighting to hand doctors their money. It's like conducting a survey of lawyers to see if they support a proposal to provide attorneys to indigent civil plaintiffs or a survey of autoworkers to see if they support a proposal to bail out GM.

I'd also like to note that the thing that really caught my eye was that 90% of physicians would prefer either a totally private or hybrid plan over a single-payer system. For those of you who do support a single-payer system: how do you react to that?
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

From the study:



Also:



Furthermore, it's worth stepping back and thinking for a moment about what this study is actually proving. Is anyone really surprised that doctors would generally favor a health care proposal that would increase their customer base? The main effect of the hybrid plan would be to add tens of millions of people to the pile of people already fighting to hand doctors their money. It's like conducting a survey of lawyers to see if they support a proposal to provide attorneys to indigent civil plaintiffs or a survey of autoworkers to see if they support a proposal to bail out GM.

I'd also like to note that the thing that really caught my eye was that 90% of physicians would prefer either a totally private or hybrid plan over a single-payer system. For those of you who do support a single-payer system: how do you react to that?


Actually, it appears that the reasons (table 3, page 8) for preferring Medicare are patient-based (more autonomy in decisions and greater ease in obtaining services your patients need), whilst the reasons for preferring private insurance are money-based.

So, seems like the docs want the money from private insurance, but the interests of their patients from Medicare.

And, overall, the doc in them wins, with the majority preferring a public option be included.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

More disagreement.

Investor's Business Daily

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul

By TERRY JONES
News Analysis by IBD | Posted Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:30 PM PT



Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.

It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration's claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

The IBD/TIPP Poll was conducted by mail the past two weeks, with 1,376 practicing physicians chosen randomly throughout the country taking part. Responses are still coming in, and doctors' positions on related topics — including the impact of an overhaul on senior care, medical school applications and drug development — will be covered later in this series.

Major findings included:

• Two-thirds, or 65%, of doctors say they oppose the proposed government expansion plan. This contradicts the administration's claims that doctors are part of an "unprecedented coalition" supporting a medical overhaul.

It also differs with findings of a poll released Monday by National Public Radio that suggests a "majority of physicians want public and private insurance options," and clashes with media reports such as Tuesday's front-page story in the Los Angeles Times with the headline "Doctors Go For Obama's Reform."

Nowhere in the Times story does it say doctors as a whole back the overhaul. It says only that the AMA — the "association representing the nation's physicians" and what "many still regard as the country's premier lobbying force" — is "lobbying and advertising to win public support for President Obama's sweeping plan."

The AMA, in fact, represents approximately 18% of physicians and has been hit with a number of defections by members opposed to the AMA's support of Democrats' proposed health care overhaul.

• Four of nine doctors, or 45%, said they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if Congress passes the plan the Democratic majority and White House have in mind.

More than 800,000 doctors were practicing in 2006, the government says. Projecting the poll's finding onto that population, 360,000 doctors would consider quitting.

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• More than seven in 10 doctors, or 71% — the most lopsided response in the poll — answered "no" when asked if they believed "the government can cover 47 million more people and that it will cost less money and the quality of care will be better."

This response is consistent with critics who complain that the administration and congressional Democrats have yet to explain how, even with the current number of physicians and nurses, they can cover more people and lower the cost at the same time.

The only way, the critics contend, is by rationing care — giving it to some and denying it to others. That cuts against another claim by plan supporters — that care would be better.

...

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- 45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul
 
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Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Actually, it appears that the reasons (table 3, page 8) for preferring Medicare are patient-based (more autonomy in decisions and greater ease in obtaining services your patients need), whilst the reasons for preferring private insurance are money-based.

So, seems like the docs want the money from private insurance, but the interests of their patients from Medicare.

And, overall, the doc in them wins, with the majority preferring a public option be included.

I too would love the opportunity to suckle from an ever-flowing teat. That doesn't mean that the construction of such a teat would be cost-effective.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

I too would love the opportunity to suckle from an ever-flowing teat. That doesn't mean that the construction of such a teat would be cost-effective.

Isn't the ever-flowing teat private insurance? The study respondants already said they like the money from private better than from Medicare.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Isn't the ever-flowing teat private insurance? The study respondants already said they like the money from private better than from Medicare.

The "ever-flowing teat" is the proposal that would increase their customer base by several million people and result in increased physician revenue.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

More disagreement.


That IDB / TIPP is a disgrace of a poll. In no way should you take it seriously, nor put any reliance on the 'results'. Reasons why not are enumerated well in the following article, I'll only c/p the conclusion here:



IBD/TIPP Doctors Poll Is Not Trustworthy


(snip ... )

My advice would be to completely ignore this poll. There are pollsters out there that have an agenda but are highly competent, and there are pollsters that are nonpartisan but not particularly skilled. Rarely, however, do you find the whole package: that special pollster which is both biased and inept. IBD/TIPP is one of the few exceptions.

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: IBD/TIPP Doctors Poll Is Not Trustworthy
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

The "ever-flowing teat" is the proposal that would increase their customer base by several million people and result in increased physician revenue.

I understood what you meant, but dispute your premise. Most practices cost-shift to private insurance. Looking at the prospect of possibly lower re-imbursements, they are not looking at massive revenue increases.

For most successful practices, likely the opposite. Most docs are already overbooked, utilizing PAs and RNs and popping in for only the 'meat' of appts. They are not sitting on excess, underutilized capacity in terms of patient appt scheduling.
 
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Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

In other news, the majority of cookie monsters support free cookies.


Me want cookie!

Me eat cookie!

Awwwwn Nom nom nom
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Yeah, because dealing with insurance companies is such a piece of cake. :doh

Do you know that 30-40% of your current insured healthcare cost is administrative???

That's not true. I defy you to substantiate that claim.
 
Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Both private sector insurance companies and government medicaid / medicare bureaucracies add paperwork. The difference is that the private solutions, in a truly free market, are optional - doctors and patients individually decide whether to deal with them or not. This leads to competition to streamline the information flow processes. The government, on the other hand, has no incentive to be efficient - what are you gonna do, cancel your citizenship and switch to a different government by making one phone call? :roll:
 
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Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

That IDB / TIPP is a disgrace of a poll.
:spin:
:rofl
It is a poll.
Not a disgrace of a poll, but a poll.
A poll of working doctors.
A poll whose respondents had to take the initiative to answer with their own opinion.
A poll that shows what is already known, that what the liberals propose isn't wholly supported.



In no way should you take it seriously, nor put any reliance on the 'results'. Reasons why not are enumerated well in the following article, I'll only c/p the conclusion here:
Let's see.
You want me to dismiss this poll based on the opinion of Nate Silver who states;

I vote for Democratic candidates the majority of the time (though by no means always). This year, I have been a supporter of Barack Obama.
Sorry but that ain't gonna happen.
Nor are the reasons he sites for dismissal enough to ignore the (respondents answers) results.
 
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Re: A new study finds that a majority of physicians support the creation of a public

Yeah, because dealing with insurance companies is such a piece of cake. :doh

Do you know that 30-40% of your current insured healthcare cost is administrative???
That is what bureaucracy is like. Something tells me a federal-based, public option would not cut bureaucracy by much. In fact Parkinson's law would tend to suggest that in the long term the opposite would be true.
 
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