Do Americans really want health care reform?

November 27, 2007

The polls say yes, but do they really understand what’s involved? The “more medicine is better medicine” mentality would have to be the first to go:

The polls show that many Americans like what they have; if there is excess in our system, they embrace it. They find comfort in the idea that, when they consider their medical options, they have a long list of choices, including the newest and the most expensive drugs, devices, tests and procedures. Most subscribe to the American creed that newer is almost always better. And, as the latest ABC News/ Kaiser Family Foundation/ USA Today poll shows, only 30 percent of those surveyed see unnecessary treatments as a problem in our system, while just 28 percent say that the “increased use of expensive new drugs, treatments and medical technology” is driving rising costs, “even though,” the pollsters note, “this is the factor most often named by experts.”



Related posts:

  1. Health care policy experts versus the public, an obstacle to reform
  2. Why Americans fear radical health care reform
  3. Most Americans have health insurance, and what health reform is going to do for them
  4. Coverage does not equal health care
  5. Health care reform: History is against it
  6. Costs first, then the uninsured
  7. Physician payment reform is the key to fixing the health care system


KevinMD.com on Facebook


  Follow on Twitter   Subscribe



{ 1 comment }

1 Anonymous November 27, 2007 at 7:13 pm

God forgive me for saying this, but the tort liability system may prevent the democrat party’s dream of medical sector Stalinization, oops I meant “health care reform.”

Ed Sodaro MD

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post: What to do with a growing Medicaid population

Next post: Dr. WhiteCoat, one tough SOB

Site Meter