Eric Cantor’s Office Promotes Flawed ‘Doctors Will Quit if HCR Passes’ Study
From yesterday’s Twitter feed of Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the GOP whip’s office:
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Dayspring doesn’t mis-attribute the study to the New England Journal of Medicine, but I think Peter Lipson at Forbes does a good job unspooling the unscientific Medicus poll that’s at issue here.
“„When asked, “How do you think the passage of health reform WITHOUT a public option would affect your professional/practice plans, if at all?” 70% of respondents said, “no change.” It is not reported in this data, but apparently primary care physicians, who made up about a third of respondents, were more likely to say that they would leave medical practice.
“„I have no doubt that there are unsatisfied physicians out there. This data, gathered unscientifically, hyped by the survey company, and widely picked up by partisan media, is not a reliable measure of doctors’ responses to health care reform.
If the bill passes, I wonder if this sort of hyperbole will be remembered the way Republican claims that Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget would bring about a massive recession are remembered.
