Major Surge in Support for Natiional Health Insurance among U.S. Physicians, New Study Finds

Sara Rogers
April 1, 2008

Sacramento – The call for publicly funded health insurance received a major boost Tuesday after recent findings that a solid majority of U.S. physicians now support national health insurance, according to a new study published in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine, a prominent U.S. medical journal. Importantly, the study cites an overall trend of growing support among physicians in favor of national health insurance across a broad range of specialties since 2002, when a similar study was conducted.

The 2008 study found that 59% of U.S. physicians now support government legislation to establish national health insurance, reflecting an increase of 10 percentage points from the 2002 study, at which time 49% of physicians were in support. The increase in support for national health insurance
is mirrored by a decline in opposition among doctors, from 40 in 2002 down to 32% in 2008. Support among doctors for national health insurance has increased across almost all medical specialties, said Dr. Ronald T. Ackermann, associate director of the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research at Indiana University’s School of Medicine and co-author of the study. Dr. Aaron E. Carroll, Director of Indiana University's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research and lead author of the study, commented: "Many claim to speak for physicians and reflect their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support the government creating national health insurance."

California State Senator Sheila Kuehl, author of legislation to establish a publicly funded health insurance system in California, cited the study as evidence that health care providers are unsatisfied with private health insurance and are ready to support a system where health care is publicly funded but privately delivered, similar to what she has proposed with SB 840.

"Physicians see, first hand, how insurance companies are dismantling the U.S. health care system in terms of affordability, access and quality", stated Senator Kuehl. "This study mirrors the steady growth in support that we’ve been seeing among the public, generally, as well as nurses and other health care providers. The public is way ahead of the politicians on this issue."

Major Surge in Support for National Health Insurance among U.S. Physicians, New Study Finds

Solid majority support government legislation to establish national health insurance.

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Single Payer: It's Time to Have Hope

By Sara Rogers, Consultant, Health

"Politically feasible" is just another way of saying that folks are scared to stand up to insurance companies. I don't accept that. It's time to take a stand for what we really want. It's time to have hope. - Senator Sheila Kuehl

SB 840 is alive and well in the Assembly Appropriations committee, much further along in the legislative process than it was in 2006, just before its historical passage out of both houses of the legislature and onto the Governor's desk. Legislative deadlines for passage out of fiscal committees aren't until August 15th and, between now and then, grassroots organizing and education efforts are really taking off. Every day, Senator Kuehl and her staff receive requests for presentations regarding SB 840, the truly universal healthcare bill.

On Sunday, January 27th and Monday, January 28th, the American Medical Students' Association held their hugely successful third annual rally and lobby day in Sacramento, which included a day long training that drew nearly 400 med students from all over the state. The fact that so many overworked medical students spent an entire weekend, even taking a rare day off from school, to advocate for single payer health care shows an unparalleled level of dedication and passion. AMSA students give every single payer supporter hope and inspiration as they push for passage of the bill.

Single payer advocates are also busy preparing for a historical strategy summit taking place in Los Angles later this month that will bring together representatives from the broad coalition of organizations dedicated to bringing single payer to California. The summit demonstrates the unprecedented development of the organized and operational single payer movement necessary to bring universal health care to California. It's the kind of grassroots movement that has been largely absent in the history of health reform, and it's just one example of the changing landscape of health care politics.

On that note, my "leisure" reading lately is a book called, One Nation Uninsured: Why the US Has No National Health Insurance. It chronicles the 20th century’s long line of failed attempts at achieving national health insurance. There's an unmistakable pattern to each major attempt, in that there seems have been an attempt once every decade and, each time national health insurance is within our grasp, it is defeated with a capitulatory "compromise".

I couldn't help but notice that, historically, the compromises are forged by the exact same powerful interests every time, working like scavengers randomly picking through the ideas of national health insurance, with little consideration given to whether any "reform" was actually going to improve the health care system for the average American.

In fact, a century of such "health care reform" has brought our health care system to the point where it is deeply fragmented, unimaginably costly and the least effective system in the entire developed world at delivering either health or care. I can’t help but wonder where we might have been in terms of universal health care had proponents not forfeited their goal quite so fast.

Most striking? The grassroots role that physicians repeatedly played in defeating national health insurance. The American Medical Association functioned as an exceptionally effective grassroots movement that was embedded in every community across the nation. They organized education and lobbying campaigns against universal health care, labeling their efforts as "protecting the public health". They hired PR consultants who admitted that they were attempting to label national health insurance as "socialized medicine" for the simple reason that Americans were opposed to socialism.

The litmus test for "politically feasible" has historically been largely defined by where doctors, insurers, business and labor stood on the issue. Throughout the last century, there was no grassroots group as singularly focused on the passage of single payer health care as the physicians and insurers were opposed to it. That's changed considerably, especially in California, as the 500 or so organizations that support SB 840 continue their evolution into an effective coalition that works tirelessly (and largely under the radar of many in Sacramento) to educate and organize Californians on universal health care.

More importantly, groups that traditionally oppose single payer, like physicians, are no longer unified against it. The American College of Physicians made history last year in their endorsement of single payer and the California Medical Association includes a large and growing minority of members that strongly support single payer. The American Medical Students Association has quickly risen to become one of the most passionate and inspired groups advocating for passage of SB 840. Another powerful provider group, the California Nurses Association has gone "all in" for single payer and is working in much the same way for single payer as the American Medical Association once worked to oppose it. Their dedication unites with that of organizations like Health Care for All – California, school employees, the League of Women Voters, retired teachers, and others who are deeply embedded in communities across the state.

The lesson that advocates of single payer should take from history is to observe how the AMA was able to defeat national health insurance through steady community education and organizing. This is why single payer has the best shot, politically, as well as on a policy basis, for winning passage. Only single-payer boasts the kind of unified and dedicated grassroots movement for something that makes large reform possible.

In the midst of an unprecedented and inspiring presidential primary, the theme for 2008 is unmistakable - it’s time to have hope.

...OTHER RICH COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. Why Don't We? Watch Sick Around The World: http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24925...