Doctors and the health care crisis : why don’t we ask the experts?

One of the most serious threats facing the United States today is the rising cost of health care. Indeed, each year the United States spends upwards of $2 trillion on its health care system. However, prices have risen to such a high degree that over 40 million Americans currently lack health insurance. What is more troubling is that if health care prices continue to rise at such a high rate, the economic solvency of the United States could be in jeopardy. Considering these factors, health care reform is a necessity. Of course health care reform is not a new concept. Over the past 100 years, there have been numerous attempts to reform the health care system. However, due to the efforts of physicians through the American Medical Association (AMA), nearly every major health care reform has been defeated. Considering this history, if our nation is ever to achieve the health care reform we need, we must work with the AMA as a partner and not as an adversary. This partnership begins with an effort to understand the perceptions that physicians have towards the health care system. In order to understand these perceptions, I have conducted a survey of physicians throughout New York State. This survey has revealed how doctors view issues pertaining to managed care, government intervention, and free market reforms. Such statistical data will be useful in designing future health care reform proposals so that the AMA will no longer act as an adversary to health care reform