Doctors Back Away From Reform, Poll Finds

In a dramatic shift, the nation’s doctors are becoming increasingly fearful of comprehensive health care reform and many are lobbying elected officials--and their own patients--to oppose President Clinton’s agenda for change, a new Times Mirror poll has found.

“Physicians have come to the judgment that major health care reform is bad for their health and the health of their patients,” said Robert J. Blendon, a Harvard University public opinion expert on health care issues and a consultant in the Times Mirror survey.

“They feel the health care reform train is going too far, too fast,” he said.

The Times Mirror poll data also suggests that the public at large is similarly becoming wary about major reform proposals--even though 76% still back Clinton’s goal of universal coverage as soon as possible.

The physicians’ attitude is a dramatic turnaround from only a year ago when 64% of those surveyed by Times Mirror said the health care system needed fundamental change, said Andrew Kohut, director of the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press. In the new survey, only 39% said fundamental change is necessary. Times Mirror Co. is the owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, broadcasting and publishing enterprises.

The shift in attitude by doctors comes as health care inflation has moderated and Congress looks increasingly likely to enact legislation that is much less far-reaching than the agenda proposed by Clinton last year.

The general population survey involved 1,021 adults and was conducted from June 23 to June 26, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The physician survey involved 495 physicians and was conducted from June 9 to July 1, with a 5-point margin of error.

The poll found a strikingly pessimistic mood among physicians, with two out of three saying that they expect a reduction in income in the next five years. Indeed one out of four said their incomes have already declined, especially specialists and others at higher income levels. And nine out of 10 doctors said they expect to have more practice restrictions placed on them.

According to the poll, half the physicians said they have contacted public officials about health care reform, 47% have tried to influence their patients on the issue and 31% have contributed to a candidate or organization with views they favor.

But the least politically active group are those who support Clinton’s plan. Only 40% contacted public officials compared to 56% of doctors who oppose Clinton’s approach.

That contrast is even greater when it came to lobbying patients. The study found that only 23% of Clinton backers talked to their patients, but 55% of critics did so.

In the general population survey, 58%--compared to 45% last September--said they believe that they will have less freedom to choose their own doctors.