Survey: More Doctors Back Universal Health Care

More doctors support a national health insurance plan today than five years ago, according to an Indiana University School of Medicine study.

Just under half of all doctors surveyed in 2002 said they favored universal health coverage. By 2007, 59 percent of those asked responded in the affirmative.

That jump represents as many as 90,000 physicians who now support national health insurance, said Dr. Aaron Carroll, director of Indiana University School of Medicine’s Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research and an author of the survey.

The study, in Tuesday’s Annals of Internal Medicine, did not ask doctors why their views had shifted, but Carroll said several factors may be at work.

"Doctors are right there on the front lines. They see what not having insurance or being underinsured does," Carroll said. "All the changes and the things that we’ve talked about doing are not making anything better. The cost is going up, access is going down and quality is not getting any better."

According to the latest survey, 83 percent of psychiatrists favored national health insurance. Just under 70 percent of emergency medicine physicians, 65 percent of pediatricians, 64 percent of internists, 60 percent of family physicians and 55 percent of surgeons supported it.

Radiologists, anesthesiologists and doctors who worked in some surgical subspecialties were the only groups where a majority did not support universal coverage.

It’s not just that these specialties tend to be the more lucrative ones within medicine, said Carroll, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine. Doctors who work in these areas may have less exposure to uninsured patients.

Five years have made a difference in Carroll’s views, he said.

When he did the first study, he could not understand why a doctor would want universal coverage. After completing the study, though, and doing more research, he came to believe it’s time for a change.

The current system isn’t adequate, he said.

"This is a bad system. It’s not working."