A new
Investor’s Business Daily poll
of more than 1,300 physicians finds that nearly two-thirds (65%) don’t
back ObamaCare, more than 70% say the government cannot provide
insurance coverage for 47 million additional people and save money
without harming quality, and 45% of doctors say they “would consider
leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” if the liberal
health care plan passes.
Earlier this week, as the front-page story in today’s Investor’s Business Daily noted, the Los Angeles Times ran a
front-page story touting the American Medical Association (AMA)’s backing of President Obama’s health care plans, while a
National Public Radio publicized a poll funded by a pro-ObamaCare group to claim that “nearly three-quarters of doctors said they favor a public option.”
The IBD/TIPP poll of 1,376 physicians suggests that the AMA does not
represent most doctors as it advertises and lobbies on behalf of the
administration’s plan, and offers a second opinion to the poll (of 991
physicians) originally published in the
New England Journal of Medicine suggesting strong support for a bigger government role.
Here’s an excerpt of today’s
IBD story
(they promise more data from the poll for tomorrow’s paper), followed
by excerpts from the Los Angeles Times and NPR stories mentioned in the
article:
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....
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 U.S. today has just 2.4 physicians per 1,000 population — below
the median of 3.1 for members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, the official club of wealthy nations.
Adding millions of patients to physicians' caseloads would threaten
to overwhelm the system. Medical gatekeepers would have to deny care to
large numbers of people. That means care would have to be rationed.
"It's like giving everyone free bus passes, but there are only two
buses," Dr. Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family
Physicians, told the Associated Press.
# Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times story, with the online headline: “
Healthcare reform wins over doctors lobby,” which stressed how physicians were clamoring for Obama's health care changes:
The American Medical Assn., after 60 years of opposing
any government overhaul of healthcare, is now lobbying and advertising
to win public support for President Obama's sweeping plan -- a proposal
that promises hundreds of billions of dollars for America's doctors.
Of all the interest groups that have won favorable terms in
closed-door negotiations this year, the association representing the
nation's physicians may have taken home the biggest prizes, including
an agreement to stop planned cuts in Medicare payments that are worth
$228 billion to doctors over 10 years.
In addition, the proposal that would require all individuals to
obtain medical insurance includes premium subsidies to ensure that
their doctor bills would be paid....
In the past, the AMA saw the government as endangering doctors'
incomes and independence. Now, with the advent of Medicare and other
federal programs, which the organization originally opposed, the
government has become a vital source of revenue and stability for
doctors.
"Doctors are really, really discouraged now about people not getting
access to medical care," said Dr. Nancy Nielsen, immediate past
president of the AMA, who has been meeting with top congressional
officials this summer on behalf of the association.
# And, an excerpt from the September 15 “
Morning Edition” story on NPR (audio available
here):
REPORTER JOSEPH SHAPIRO: In the survey, nearly
three-quarters of doctors said they favor a public option. Co-author
Dr. Salomeh Keyhani is a researcher at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
DR. SALOMEH KEYHANI (Researcher, Mount Sinai School of Medicine):
The results of the study demonstrated that the majority of physicians
support a public option in the United States of America.
SHAPIRO: That included the 63 percent who say they'd like to see
patients get a choice of public or private insurance and another 10
percent who favor a public option only. They'd like to see a
single-payer system. When the public in general is surveyed, support
for a public option has run between 50 and 70 percent....
SHAPIRO: Lots of the doctors in the survey said that they sometimes
run into problems with Medicare. But Keyhani, who's spoken publicly in
support of a public option, says doctors she spoke to for the survey
often worry more about their uninsured patients.
DR. KEYHANI: So many of Americans are uninsured and physicians have
to take care of uninsured patients. A public option would sort of help
guarantee that most people had coverage. And I think that's very
important to physicians who wake up in the middle of the night, they go
to the hospital and they take care of patients and are not reimbursed.
So having a guarantee of reimbursement of some sort I think is very
appealing to most physicians.
SHAPIRO: The new survey was published online by The New England
Journal of Medicine and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a
health care organization that favors health reform. Joseph Shapiro, NPR
News.
ANCHOR RENEE MONTAGNE: And we should note that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also supports NPR.
—Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center.