|
• Snow Closings
|
|
| Wed, Feb. 10 - - Mobile - RSS | |
| YOUR TOWN: Caroline | Culpeper | King George | Fredericksburg | Orange | Spotsylvania | Stafford | Westmoreland | |
|
|
Doctors fed up with insurers
Date published: 11/15/2009
By MARIE McCULLOUGH The Philadelphia Inquirer PHILADELPHIA --U.S. physicians are torn over what the government should do to make health care more available and affordable, but they're surprisingly like-minded about one perceived scourge--the insurance industry.As the U.S. Senate considers the health care bill that narrowly passed the House over the weekend, polls and pundits have tried to gauge doctors' support for change. The most up-to-date national survey of physicians, published in September in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that most favored expanding health coverage to the uninsured through a government-sponsored program--the so-called public option. The House bill included this choice for needy individuals and small businesses, but it faces tough opposition in the Senate. Another survey, published last month in the same journal, found 70 percent of Massachusetts doctors support that state's three-year-old reform law, which increased public options, and created a government-regulated health insurance exchange. POLLS DON'T TELL ALL But polls are tricky. Doctors' views depend on what they're asked, who is asking and when. And polls may not gauge how hot-button health issues such as abortion and malpractice trump support for more coverage. One opinion, however, is heard again and again, regardless of physicians' politics, specialty, or income: "My colleagues and I spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone arguing with insurance companies for therapies we know are right. It's reached a breaking point," said John Maris, chief of the oncology division at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "I'd take less salary if I could have less paperwork and less fighting with insurance companies to get what my patients need," said Nicholas A. DiNubile, a Havertown, Pa.-based knee surgeon and sports medicine expert with Premier Orthopedics, one of Pennsylvania's biggest orthopedic practices. Although these two physicians sound like echoes when it comes to insurance companies, they disagree about reform. DiNubile opposes a public option, while Maris supports it. Indeed, Maris was among 150 physicians who formed a white-coated White House backdrop last month as President Barack Obama promoted his vision, which includes expanding publicly funded coverage. Surveys aim to get beyond such symbolism, but some ask questions that are philosophical or theoretical, making the results hard to interpret.
Date published: 11/15/2009
|
 |
|||
|
|||
