A graphic you will NEVER SEE on Fox News... and a story they will never report on (Public Option)

[zulchzulu]

NPR had this story yesterday:
http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/atc/2009/09/20090914_atc_10.mp3

Among all the players in the health care debate, doctors may be the least understood about where they stand on some of the key issues around changing the health care system. Now, a new survey finds some surprising results: A large majority of doctors say there should be a public option.

When polled, "nearly three-quarters of physicians supported some form of a public option, either alone or in combination with private insurance options," says Dr. Salomeh Keyhani. She and Dr. Alex Federman, both internists and researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, conducted a random survey, by mail and by phone, of 2,130 doctors. They surveyed them from June right up to early September.

Most doctors — 63 percent — say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance. That's the position of President Obama and of many congressional Democrats. In addition, another 10 percent of doctors say they favor a public option only; they'd like to see a single-payer health care system. Together, the two groups add up to 73 percent.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112818960&sc=fb&cc=fp

Let's see if any of the Ken and Barbie Murdoch puppets would dare cover this story. Polls! Polls! Polls! Except these kinds of polls... :crazy:

[treestar]

1. That's higher than Obama's approval rating!

LOL.

[zulchzulu]

2. Obama's climbing polls numbers is ANOTHER story Fox won't report on

They would do a "story" on how boll weevils have funny legs before they'd do a story on Obama gaining more popularity.

[msallied]

3. I am, however, glad this is on the MSM.

Leave the fringe to stew in its own bile.

[Phx_Dem]

4. I thought the majority of American's wanted single-payer? NOT!

I can't recall how many posts I've read on DU questioning why single-payer isn't on the table becuase the majority of people support it. Except they don't.

I do. I think single-payer would be great, but I'm not delusional or dishonest enough to say that most people want it, because they don't.

[FormerDittoHead]

5. Clarification: this chart is a poll of DOCTORS, not general population.

I don't know what THOSE numbers would be, simply because I think if you did a multiple-choice poll asking Americans as to what single payer IS (eg: Medicare) they wouldn't KNOW. Many, I suspect, would think it's "socialized medicine"...

[slipslidingaway]

6. Obviously you have not looked at any of the past polls...

before making this delusional and dishonest comment.

And you do not even know what poll the OP referenced.

[slipslidingaway]

7. I agree with this comment...

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/8141

"ralphbon September 14th, 2009 at 5:03 pm 25OK

...here is the precise wording of the survey questions. This is not given in the NPR article or even in the main NEJM report; you have to go to the report’s supplemental online appendix to find it:

Respondents were asked to indicate which of three options they would most strongly support:

1. Public and Private Options: Provide people under age 65 the choice of enrolling in a new public health insurance plan (like Medicare) or in private plans.

2. Private Options Only: Provide people with tax credits or low-income subsidies to buy private insurance coverage (without creating a public plan option).

3. Public Option Only: Eliminate private insurance and cover everyone in a single public plan like Medicare.

As is all too common, the description of the public option (bolded) is completely aspirational and bears no resemblance to the actual, hobbled program in HR 3200 and even less resemblance to the even more hobbled description of the public option given by Obama in his speech Wednesday. The notion that people under 65 would have a free choice of something like Medicare is as pie-in-the-sky in today’s Washington as full-frontal single payer. Even a single-payer nut like me would jump for joy and pound the pavement to preserve HR 3200 if that’s what it actually contained.

Oh, and while we’re at it, look at the wording of the single-payer choice. Eliminating all private insurance (even nonprofit Medigap-type plans of the sort available in France and most other nations providing universal health care) is a canard. Few knowledgeable single-payer proponents would consider this a necessary stipulation, and it is absolutely not a feature of HR 676, the single-payer bill most of us support. Other surveys showing much higher support for single payer, including that showing 59% support among US physicians, polled on a description of a Medicare-like program extended to all Americans. So it’s not surprising that only 10% of docs supported SP given this misleadingly radicalized description."