Most U.S. doctors oppose full repeal of Obamacare - survey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Most U.S. doctors oppose President Donald Trump's bid to repeal Barack Obama's signature health care reform law, saying it needs to be fixed rather than eliminated, a study released Wednesday, January 25 found, according to AFP.

The report in the New England Journal of Medicine was based on a survey of 426 physicians randomly selected from the American Medical Association's Physician Masterfile, a database of more than 1.4 million doctors, residents and medical students in the United States.

"What we heard is that the majority of primary care physicians are open to changes in the law but overwhelmingly opposed full repeal," said lead author Craig Pollack, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Just 15 percent of responding physicians supported complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Meanwhile, 74 percent of respondents favored making changes, "such as creating a public option like Medicare to compete with private plans, paying physicians for value rather than volume and increasing the use of health savings accounts," said the report.

Just 29 percent of doctors were in favor of increasing the use of high-deductible health plans, whereby patients pay lower monthly fees for insurance but may have to pay thousands out of pocket annually for medical services until they meet their deductible.

One of Trump's first actions as president was to sign on January 20 an executive order aimed at limiting the "burden" of the Obamacare health law.

During the signing in the Oval Office, Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus described the order as aimed at "minimizing the economic burden" of the Affordable Care Act, "pending repeal."