Doctors opinions... from the comments page

Interesting comment--thanks for posting by the way!--on Doctors opinion about "National Health Care"

Jaxon said...

Did you see the Bunk study stating 2/3 of doctors in America want National Health Care. The doctors who did this study also conducted one in 2002 and found that the majority of doctors did not want national health care, the problem with this is that the 2 question surveys drastically differ in their 2nd question. I found this article, 60% of Doctors Surveyed Oppose Switching to a National Health Care Plan, It's worth a read.

Unfortunately I honestly don't have the time to read up on this, though I think it would be interesting to look into. I always like debunking good data. But I'll assume Jaxon is correct.

1) We rank 37th in the world for health care according to the world health organization. We spend 2 to 3 times more than other industrialized nations on that care. Meaning we spend MORE to get LESS. So somebody is making huge profits. Doctors probably aren't doing too shabby since protectionism keep them from facing market competition.

I can't help but think of the Upton Sinclair quote:

“If is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it”

So I could see how this is a plausible thing to find and explain--that speaks nothing to using the approaches that have succeeded for the other industrialized nations

2. "National Health care" Jaxon, if you could just clarify your meaning because there are so many words and labels being thrown around on this issue and unfortunately that causes a lot of confusion.

The approach I am for... is socialized health insurance. It does not nationalize the system meaning it doesn't make the Doctors or medical field government employees but creates basic requirements that would fix our current dysfunctional health care market. Right now we have a major market failure on our hands... it comes from major waste and inefficiencies from the insurance companies who are trying to squeeze out profits for shareholders over insuring people. Second reasons is there is a lot of protectionism--on medicine, and doctors, specifically.

Its unfortunate that John McCain is running around saying he supports a free market approach to the health care crisis. Either that shows he is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of voters--since he is not for removing the protectionism I just spoke of. Or else he doesn't know much about how market systems work. Neither give a very positive impression of McCain--nor a very good reason to think he merits the job of President.

Universal Health Care in 2008... our economy is hurt by the current crisis making us less competitive globally, hard working Americans are going bankrupt over things they can't control much of the time, and it speaks to the values I believe in--that which we do to the least of these.

Oh yeah.. and I pay 800-1400 a month in health care costs since I lack health insurance...

Obama in 2008. McCain is 4 more years of the same.

Thanks again Jaxon I appreciate people bringing more items of interest to the table. Maybe one of my readers can dig around on that issue so that we can do some debunking if possible. Thats what we bloggers do!
--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com