CIR Polls Members About Political Action
You told us what’s important!
From August 1 through 15, 2008, CIR conducted its first-ever poll of CIR membership on issues relating to the health care system and the state of politics in the United States. Advocating for better patient care through political action has been one of the primary missions of CIR since it was founded. Throughout the years, we have added the doctor’s voice into the major policy discussions of the day.
CIR’s policy positions flow from the feedback we receive from members at the local and national levels, and from the deliberations of your elected representatives to the CIR Executive Committee. Our online poll provided the opportunity to hear from a large number of CIR doctors at once, and helped us focus our political activism for the year to come.
The poll was conducted by the firm Merriman River using a self-selected online survey. We received 1,266 responses over those two weeks from all parts of the country, as well as most specialties, genders and post-graduate years. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3%.
Key findings included:
- The top two issues cited by members as the “SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE” as they consider the election of 2008 were the economy and jobs (33.0%) and health care reform (26.5%). All other responses were in the single digits.
- As for issues that members would like to see CIR become more involved in over the next year, the top responses were health care reform (70.9%) and resident work hours (51.7%), followed closely by student loan debt (42.7%) and protecting funding for government-subsidized programs like Medicaid and SCHIP (41.2%)
- When asked which aspect of the current health care system most troubled our members, the responses focused on the role of private insurance companies (41.2%), and the threat of medical liability suits (32.2%).
- When asked which issue of our current health care system most urgently needed to be addressed, most respondents said either emphasizing primary care and preventative medicine (30.5%) or health care disparities between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds (22.2%). Also of note were medical school debt (16.5%) and too few doctors, nurses and staff in hospitals (15.6%)
- Overall, CIR members have a positive experience of practicing medicine, with over 70% claiming to be satisfied or very satisfied.
- They are also civic-minded, with 84.4% of eligible U.S. citizens registered to vote, and 86.7% intending to vote in the 2008 elections.
When CIR shared the poll's results with members, they said the priority issues hit close to home. Here are responses of residents from four different regions:
"I am fairly satisfied with the current practice of medicine and look forward to the many changes that are
revolutionizing our field. As a family doctor, I enjoy the ability to provide comprehensive and long-term care for my patients and their families. Furthermore, the ability to affect individual change and at the same time advocate for our patients’ health on a community level is truly rewarding. However, the frustrations that come with the practice are mostly rooted in the business of medicine, when profits override patient's health. Such examples include pressures to see more patients in less time, denial of essential labs, tests and services by insurance companies and the lack of access to healthcare because of the inability to pay."
- DR. JIMMY CHEN, PGY 3, Family & Community Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital
"Quality health care begins with primary care. We've all seen patients with health conditions that are costly to treat, but completely preventable if they'd gone early to a primary care physician.
If we want to extend quality, affordable health care for all, we're going to need more doctors and health care workers in primary care, and more support for those already in the system."
- DR. DAVID KESSLER, PGY 5, Pediatrics, <>Bellevue Medical Center, New York, NY
"For me personally, where I’m going to choose to practice after my residency will be impacted by medical debt. I would find it gratifying to practice in a community of need, which is why I came to Jackson, where I can have a broader impact on my community.
In my area, psychiatry, there are barriers to trust, and I think it’s valuable to my patients to have doctors who reflect back who they are. It’s valuable to have more people of color, and women, in medicine. I came into medicine to help people, and it’s rewarding to help, but the reality is that I owe $100,000."
- DR. JANETTA DOMINIC CURETON, Psychiatry Fellow, and CIR Florida Vice President, Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, FL
"Private insurance companies are what they are... They are risk management funds, businesses whose goal is to increase their profits…by studying a population at risk and determining the cash flow they need to profitably manage that risk. They are not in business to adequately assure healthcare access for all. They are not in business to provide adequate or fair reimbursement to providers…That is probably what makes most physicians uneasy about insurance companies; we don't share the same values or have the same goals."
-DR. MIKE MAZZINI, CIR Massachusetts Vice President and PGY 7, Cardiovascular Medicine, Boston Medical Center
Look for CIR’s political action committee to apply these findings to our efforts in 2008 and beyond.