Physician Opinion of the U.S. Health Care System: A Systematic Review

This systematic review of published research on physician attitudes toward health reform begins with a brief analytical illustration of organized medicine as an important political influence, before moving to a structured, critical appraisal of opinion literature. The systematic review identified 15 studies, culled from 1968-2009, which met quality standards. Physicians overall tended to be dissatisfied with the system and believed that everyone should have access to care, but they have yet to achieve consensus as to the best course for reform. Primary care, hospital-based, salaried, and urban physicians were more likely to support single payer plans. Meanwhile, surgeons, specialists, AMA members, office-based, and private practice physicians appear more likely to choose retention of the current system or a non-single-payer alternative, such as tax credits or health savings accounts. Several problems dog the literature throughout and limit our ability to draw conclusions, including: question wording problems, non-response bias, limited study populations, the absence of key variables, and a limited ability to track trends.Master of Public Healt