HEALTH REFORM LESSONS LEARNED FROM PHYSICIANS IN 3 NATIONS

To explore the concerns of practicing physicians as a way to inform th e health reform debate, the authors conducted a survey of physicians i n 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 frequent ly as Canadian physicians did; other measures of satisfaction were clo ser to U.S. levels, suggesting fewer trade-offs if the United States w ere to adopt aspects of the German health care system.