Massachusetts doctors snub state’s HCR as model for country, pick single-payer system instead

[chill_wind]

This is from a couple weeks ago. Apologies if it was posted at the time and I missed it, but I think these are some very telling facts:

Massachusetts doctors snub state’s health reform as model for country,
pick single-payer system instead

October 26, 2010 by Healthcare-NOW!
Filed under Single-Payer News

BOSTON – For the first time the Massachusetts Medical Society has asked doctors what they think about health reform in its annual “Physician Workforce Survey” of 1,000 practicing physicians in the state, and the results may strike some as surprising.

A plurality of the physician respondents, 34 percent, picked single-payer health reform as their preferred model of reform, followed by 32 percent who favored a private-public insurance mix with a public option buy-in. Seventeen percent voted for the pre-reform status quo, including the permissibility of insurers offering low-premium, high-deductible health plans.

Remarkably, only 14 percent of Massachusetts doctors would recommend their own state’s model as a model for the nation. A small number of respondents, 3 percent, chose an unspecified “other.”

In other words, the doctors with the most on-the-ground experience with the Massachusetts plan, after which the Obama administration’s new health law is patterned, regard it as one of the least desirable alternatives for financing care.

(snip)

Dr. Rachel Nardin, chair of neurology at Cambridge Hospital and president of the Massachusetts chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, said: “Massachusetts physicians realize that the state’s health reform has failed to make health care affordable and accessible, and won’t work for the nation. These findings show the high support for single-payer Medicare for all by physicians on the front lines of reform.”

more: http://www.healthcare-now.org/massachusetts-doctors-snub-state%E2%80%99s-health-reform-as-model-for-country-pick-single-payer-system-instead/

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[chill_wind]

2. Here are some key findings on the current state of access

The report’s key findings include:

* The primary care specialties of family medicine and internal medicine are in critically short supply, the fifth consecutive year of shortages for these specialties.

* 10 of 18 specialties studied have been found in short supply, 3 more than last year.

* High percentages of primary care practices are closed to new patients: 54 percent of family medicine physicians and 49 percent of internal medicine physicians are not accepting new patients.

* Wait times for new patients for primary care continue to be long, with an average wait time of 29 days for family physicians and 53 days for internists.

* With the exception of Boston, physician shortages exist in all regional labor markets across the state.

* Community hospitals continue to be the most seriously affected by the physician shortages, with difficulty filling vacancies and retaining physicians, resulting in the need to alter services and change staffing patterns.

* The fear of being sued remains a substantial negative influence on the practice of medicine, affecting access to and availability of physician services.

“The findings from this latest analysis,” said Alice Coombs, M.D., president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, “clearly show how fragile access to care for patients is across the entire Commonwealth.

http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Research_Reports_and_Studies2&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=36171

Executive summary (pdf)- http://www.massmed.org/AM/TemplateRedirect.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=36169

Full Report (pdf)- http://www.massmed.org/AM/TemplateRedirect.cfm?Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=36166

[laughingliberal]

4. THANK GOD IT PASSED!!!! nt

[chill_wind]

5. Yessiree. We must maintain our illusions. n/t

[chill_wind]

3. kick

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, chill_wind.

[chill_wind]

7. And thank you, Uncle Joe.

[Dr.Phool]

8. Kick and Rec!

That's what we tried to tell them.

Single-payer doesn't give campaign contributions.

[chill_wind]

9. +1