Majority of Doctors favor Medicare for All

Doctors, the traditional advocates for the medical status quo, are increasingly in favor of major reforms to the U.S. health-care system.

"The stock of the private sector has gone down in doctors' eyes, while the stock of the public sector hasn't," Foldy says. "Medicare is not unpopular among doctors. The concept of Medicare for all [which is how a single-payer plan is often described] is making ideological headway. And prior to the Iraq War, the VA system made great strides as a model of quality recognized by many doctors."

Meanwhile, doctors' perceptions of the for-profit insurance industry -- which ranks about as low as Big Tobacco in the general public's eyes -- have declined as premiums soar, bureaucratic problems multiply, and the ranks of the uninsured grow. "There is much less trust that the private-sector insurance companies will be good partners in health care," Foldy says. "Doctors are encountering a lot of problems with [insurance companies], in honesty and uprightness around timely and full payment. Doctors are facing a high denial rate when they file claims."