The National Consensus for Healthcare Reform (Part II)

In support of my previous blog on the national consensus for healthcare reform, I thought I would share a few stats from the recent surveys and give some citations so you can read the various positions directly. I found two sites particularly valuable – the Kaiser family Foundation has a lot of good material and research and Consumers Union has a very good page explaining the various elements of reform.

In addition to the data below, I do have one additional fact/concern. Some of the proposals that discuss the private insurance marketplace (often called an Exchange) want to limit the exchange to just those people who buy their insurance on their own. According the Kaiser Foundation, only 5% of health insurance is individual compared with 53% employer sponsored, 15% uninsured, 14% Medicare and 13% Medicaid (data as of 2007). So what’s the point of an Exchange if it only reaches 5% of the population (perhaps 20% if you assume all uninsured will go to the Exchange)?

Here are your stats:

The New England Journal of Medicine survey of 5,000+ doctors from the AMA database which crosses over all geographic regions, specialties, etc shows:
58% support healthcare reform with 23% opposed and 18% unsure.
Further on the topic of a public plan:
63% prefer a system with both a public and private plans, 27% prefer private only and 4% prefer public only

The Kaiser Family Foundation public opinion survey from September 11-12, 2009 shows the following ideas to be preferred among the general public:

74 % Expand Medicare to cover age 55 -64
68% Require all Americans to have health insurance with support for those who can’t afford it
67% Require employers to offer health insurance or pay into a government fund
67% Offer tax credits to help people pay for private health insurance
59% Create a government run health insurance program to compete with private plan
40% Have a national health plan where all Americans would get their coverage from a single government plan


Citations for your perusal:
American Medical Association – http://www.voicefortheuninsured.org/amaproposal.html
New England Journal of Medicine - http://healthcarereform.nejm.org/?p=1790
American Nurses Association –http://www.nursingworld.org/healthcarereform
AARP –http://aarp.convio.net/site/PageNavigator/Myths_vs_Facts
Phrma – http://www.phrma.org/about_phrma/ceo_voices/healthcare_reform_getting_it_right/
Business Roundtable –http://www.businessroundtable.org/healthstudy/
America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) – http://www.americanhealthsolution.org/assets/Uploads/healthcarereformproposal.pdf
Chamber of Commerce – http://capwiz.com/chamber/issues/alert/?alertid=13529411
Kaiser Foundation - http://healthreform.kff.org/
Consumers Union –http://www.prescriptionforchange.org/2009/09/our_prescription_for_change.html#