Docs Want Public Options

A survey published today in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that doctors preferred a health care system with a public option:

"When given a three-way choice among private plans that use tax credits or subsidies to help the poor buy private insurance; a new public health insurance plan such as Medicare; or a mix of the two; 63 percent of doctors supported a mix, 27 percent said they only wanted private options, and just 10 percent said they exclusively wanted public options."

The mix of public and private options is what President Obama and House Democrats have proposed; an exclusive public option would be a Canadian-style single payer system which is not on the table. Nearly three-quarters see government involvement in the health care system as a good thing. (It should be noted that the AMA opposes a public option.) You can read more about the survey here.