We have not been hearing enough about what physicians think about the health care reform debate, so yesterday’s New England Journal of Medicine was especially interesting to me.

I was surprised by the survey results that a solid majority of physicians support a public option to increase competition competition for private insurers. I probably should not have been; physicians are getting increasingly frustrated with dealing with private insurers–apparently so frustrated that they are willing to take lower rates from Medicare (or other public insurance) than bear the costs of dealing with private insurers.

Even more interesting was another Perspective piece in yesterday’s New England Journal. The findings of another survey suggest to me that physicians’ low profile in the health care debate does not indicate apathy. Some interesting findings:

  • 78 percent of respondents said that addressing societal health policy issues is in the scope of professional obligation of a physician.

  • About 73 percent  said physicians are obligated to care for the uninsured and underinsured.

  • 54 percent said they were morally opposed to using cost-effectiveness as a factor in deciding which treatments a patient should receive.