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Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | January 31, 2017
The authors noted that administration's HHS pick, Rep. Tom Price, has argued that “the law places an undue burden on physicians.”
However, in response to this issue, the PCP survey found “a majority reported that they had seen an increase in the number of Medicaid or newly insured patients, without a decrease in their ability to provide high-quality care.”
The survey took place from December 2016 through January 2017 and a total of 426 physicians responded. Tellingly, a number of parts of the ACA found a lot of support from doctors.
The insurance-market regulations against charging more for or denying insurance for preexisting conditions were supported by 95.1 percent of doctors, who called it “very important” or “somewhat important” for improving Americans' health.
Letting children stay on parents insurance until age 26 garnered support by 87.6 percent; giving tax credits to small businesses was deemed a plus by 90.8 percent; a total of 75.2 percent supported tax subsidies to individuals and 72.9 percent were for expanding Medicaid.
But only 49.5 percent were in favor of a tax penalty for those people who refused to buy coverage.
The doctors in the survey were most against shifting costs to consumers – notably with high-deductible policies. And under 50 percent were in favor of reducing regulations on insurers, such as allowing intra-state selling.
Many others from the health care world have recently echoed the concerns highlighted in this survey. Just this month The American College of Rheumatology
sent a letter to House and Senate leaders urging that any replacement to the Affordable Care Act needed to “protect and promote access to adequate and affordable health insurance for all citizens.”
The letter stressed that the ACR “looks forward to working with both Congress and the incoming Administration,” in developing a way to guarantee that there is access to “affordable, high-quality health care, including care for arthritis and other rheumatic diseases."
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