With Hippocratic Oath, Doctors Pledge Allegiance to Patients, Not Profits
Published on Saturday, March 22, 2014 by Bangor Daily News
With Hippocratic Oath, Doctors Pledge Allegiance to Patients, Not Profits
by Philip Caper
The Maine Medical Association recently updated a 2008 poll of their members that asked the question, “When considering the topic of health care reform, would you prefer to make improvements in the current public/private system (or) a single-payer system, such as a ‘Medicare-for-all’ approach?” In 2008, 52.3 percent favored the Medicare-for-all approach. In the updated poll, released last week, that number had risen to 64.3 percent.
It’s pretty unusual for two-thirds of a group of doctors to agree on something as controversial as a single-payer health care system. Until recently, doctors formed the core resistance to “government-run” health insurance in the U.S.
A number of factors account for this impressive change, but the huge administrative burden on practicing physicians created by our plethora of private insurance schemes is certainly near the top of the list.
The other day, I spoke with a Maine physician nearing retirement and looking forward to it. She was recently returning home after a long day in her practice, carrying her “homework,” a pile of administrative paperwork several inches high. Her husband asked her how she got so far behind in her paperwork. “I wasn’t behind at all,” she replied. She did this much paperwork, mostly insurance forms, at least twice a week.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/22-5