Encouraging, but will it ever happen?

Contrary to conventional wisdom, most US doctors now support universal health care per this Reuters report from earlier today. Doctors now realizing the system is horribly broken? This is one of the things I'd very much like to see dealt with in the next few years . . . or immediately.

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday.

The survey suggests that opinions have changed substantially since the last survey in 2002 and as the country debates serious changes to the health care system.

Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.

"Many claim to speak for physicians and represent their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support national health insurance," said Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who led the study.

I've been so disappointed in the past when I thought we'd get an issue like this solved that I'm afraid to believe that it might be possible. I'd like to be less cynical, but there you go. My dad keeps encouraging me to watch "Sicko" but I think it might make me too sad and/or mad.