Nearly half of America’s doctors will quit under Obamacare

by E.D. Kain on September 16, 2009

This startling figure from Investors Business Daily.  Chart after the fold:

James Joyner notes:

I consider these numbers about as valid as those in the recent commuting pain survey claiming most people would pay $20 per 15 minutes saved on their commute. In reality, few of the doctors that are truly outraged at the proposed changes can either afford to give up their practices or would rather be doing something else. Further, this is a mail survey, so the results are particularly skewed because it’s essentially a self-selected sample.

My guess is that the 2/3 who oppose “the” plan is about right, despite the fact that there isn’t yet a single plan to oppose.  Moreover, I’m actually surprised that they found 25%  who believed “government can cover 47 million more people and it will cost less money and the quality of care will be better.”  Granted, it’s a ridiculously written triple-barreled question with no research validity whatsoever.   But anyone who’s not only schooled in how medical care works but did well enough in advanced math to get into medical school should know better.

See Also:  Nate Silver

E.D. Kain is a blogger and freelance writer. Currently he serves as Editor-in-Chief of The League of Ordinary Gentlemen and writes a tech blog at Forbes. Visit his politics blog here. He can be found occasionally composing 140 character cultural analysis on Twitter. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The National Review, The Washington Examiner, and the now-defunct True/Slant. You can also contact him via email.

{ 7 comments }

1 rob September 16, 2009 at 1:25 pm

Wouldn’t “Shockingly Unscientific Survey says that…” be a more accurate title for this post? I know its qualified by part of the quotation, but still…

Meanwhile, over in Scientifically-Conducted-Surveyland (though that survey also comes with its own set of qualifications, as noted at the end of the piece, and its hard to say exactly what a survey of doctors proves — maybe how doctors define their own interests?)…

2 Chad S September 16, 2009 at 1:36 pm

538 does a thorough dismantling of this poll:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/09/ibdtipp-doctors-poll-is-not-trustworthy.html

3 Zach September 16, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Everyone needs to take a breath and look back at the laughable history of IBD polling. It exists exclusively for the purpose of providing Larry Kudlow with talking points.

4 Zach September 17, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Hah; not quite on schedule but as predicted: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTE4MDBlMWE1NGQyNzM1NDMxN2Y1YjkxZjYyYjYyY2I=

What the Doctors Think [Larry Kudlow]
Will Americans soon be too sick to work, produce, invest, and generate new prosperity? That’s one conclusion you can draw from a new series by Investor’s Business Daily, which reveals that doctors are overwhelmingly opposed to a government takeover of health care (including the Baucus plan). Just as important, IBD reports that any government-based health-care overhaul will exacerbate the growing shortage of doctors in this country.

5 Jaybird September 16, 2009 at 1:48 pm

A full 65% of Hollywood Actors/Actresses polled said that they would move to Canada if Bush was going to be re-elected in 2004.

6 Ryan September 17, 2009 at 5:03 am

It was that low? Sounds like an unscientific poll…

7 Aziz Poonawalla September 17, 2009 at 4:37 am

I have some of the much-more reliable results from the poll published in NEJM up – it’s actually a solid study showing substantial physician support for reform including a public option. Good stuff.

Rob, the qualifications of the poll are reasonable ones. You can extrapolate from this poll to the genral population of doctors much more readily than you would from the IBD poll. Doctor’s define their interests according to their income; it’s clear that they see reform of *insurance* as not a threat (and potentially an increase, since more people with insurance = more patients).

republican claims that this reform will be a “government takeover” notwithstanding, its clear that theres no threat to private practice here. Thats why doctors are pretty supportive overall.

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