Politics aside, doctors universally fed up with insurers

U.S. physicians are torn over what the government should do to make health care more available and affordable, but they're surprisingly like-minded about one perceived scourge _ the insurance industry.

As the U.S. Senate considers the health care bill that narrowly passed the House over the weekend, polls and pundits have tried to gauge doctors' support for change.

The most up-to-date national survey of physicians, published in September in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that most favored expanding health coverage to the uninsured through a government-sponsored program _ the so-called public option. The House bill included this choice for needy individuals and small businesses, but it faces tough opposition in the Senate.

Another survey, published last month in the same journal, found 70 percent of Massachusetts doctors support that state's three-year-old reform law, which increased public options, and created a government-regulated health insurance exchange.

But polls are tricky. Doctors' views depend on what they're asked, who is asking and when. And polls may not gauge how hot-button health issues such as abortion and malpractice trump support for more coverage.