The questions physicians would ask the presidential candidates

Asked what questions they'd pose to the 2016 presidential candidates, physicians had no trouble coming up with a wide range of healthcare issues they want the politicians to address.

As part of an election pollMedical Economics asked its readers the following question: "If you could ask the presidential candidates one question, what would you ask?" The publication summed up the majority of replies. Here are the top five:

  1. Why shouldn't we have the same health insurance as you?
  2. Why are health insurers allowed to make billion dollar profits and pay their CEOs millions while denying the public care and not adequately paying the physicians who make life and death decisions daily?
  3. What are you going to do to lure more people into primary care medicine and retain those that practice it now?

  4. How would you give doctors and patients more control of patients' health and remove beaurocracy, such as documentation requirments, that take away from direct patient care?
  5. Why should doctors accept insurance with much higher deductibles, difficult billing and insurers who try to evade payment as well as the low reimbursements now coming from the insurance companies?

Physicians also wanted to know what will happen to the millions of uninsured who would lose health coverage if Obamacare is repealed and why the candidates don't have practicing phyicians advising them on healthcare policy.

The presidential campaigns have put a spotlight on the U.S. healthcare system. As the field has narrowed, healthcare policies have become a focal point, although some candidates, including Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, have faced criticism that their policies are short on details.

To learn more:
- see the poll summary