By Alicia Ault
Medscape, December 18, 2018
As many of the newly elected and newly empowered Democrats in Congress are vowing to push for what they are calling “Medicare for all,” a majority of US healthcare professionals recently surveyed said they support a single-payer system, according to a Medscape Medical News reader poll.
Sixty-eight percent said they supported ā with 52% strongly supporting ā the United States moving to single-payer healthcare, while 21% said they strongly opposed such a move.
More than two thirds of the 2503 US respondents who participated in the Medscape poll were older than 55, but the support for single-payer care came from respondents of all ages. Nurses and advanced practice nurses made up the majority of respondents, followed by physicians and administrators.
Sixty-six percent of physicians who responded said they favored a single-payer system, compared to 68% of administrators and 69% of nurses. About a quarter of respondents among those three professions opposed single-payer healthcare.
Poll: Do you favor or oppose the United States moving to a single-payer healthcare system?
52% – Strongly favor
17% – Favor
4% – Neither favor nor oppose
7% – Oppose
20% – Strongly oppose
Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
Opponents of Single Payer Medicare for All often claim that most doctors and nurses are opposed. Numerous polls refute that, including this current Medscape reader poll of health care professionals (not technically scientifically valid, but nevertheless informative – two-thirds of physicians, nurses and administrators responding support single payer).
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