Health reform lessons learned from physicians in three nations

Abstract

To explore the concerns of practicing physicians as a way to inform the health reform debate, the authors conducted a survey of physicians in the United States, Canada, and Germany. Survey results indicate that U.S. physicians are most likely to view affordability as the greatest barrier to access to care for their patients. However, unavailability of services and long waiting times were cited most often by Canadian physicians. German physicians did not cite access problems as frequently as Canadian physicians did; other measures of satisfaction were closer to U.S. levels, suggesting fewer trade-offs if the United States were to adopt aspects of the German health care system.