MEDICAL STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE AND OPINIONS OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND OTHER HEALTH CARE POLICY ISSUES

Abstract

Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March of 2010, there have been multiple large survey studies focusing on physicians’ thoughts towards health care policy issues. 1‐6 Unfortunately, there has not been adequate attention paid to medical students’ feelings on reform in the literature. Today’s medical students will enter their practice at a vital time in the ACA’s implementation and will play an integral role in health care reform throughout their careers.7,8 This study is a national project that used a survey tool to demonstrate how well medical students know the details of the ACA and what their feelings are on the legislation. The survey was sent to eight different medical institutions across the country with ten total medical school campuses, using SurveyMonkey to collect results. The institutions were chosen based on their geographic location, mix between private and public institutions, and available investigators at each institution. The survey tool was developed by Tyler Winkelman, MD, from the University of Minnesota after a comprehensive literature review, adaptation of items from his previous survey of medical students in Minnesota performed in 2012, and consultation with physicians and policy experts.9 The survey focuses on student’s opinion of the ACA, knowledge of nine key provisions in the ACA, level of support of key health care policies, feelings towards health care policy education in medical schools, and socio‐demographic information, including political ideology, debt amount and intended specialty. Data analysis was performed using Pearson’s Chi‐square tests and multiple logistic regression models at The University of Minnesota to test for associations between students’ opinion of the ACA and five key predictors: debt, medical school year, political ideology, ACA knowledge, and intended specialty. A total of 2,761 out of 5,340 medical students (52%) responded to the survey, with 63% of students indicating support for the ACA, 75% agreeing that they understand the key ACA provisions, and 56% indicating professional obligation to assist in implementation of the ACA. Students intending to enter surgery or a surgical subspecialty and students who identified themselves as conservative were found to have less support and professional obligation of the ACA when compared to students entering primary care (Internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine/pediatrics, or emergency medicine) or identifying themselves as liberal or moderate. Students that were most knowledgeable of the ACA were found to more likely support the ACA and indicate professional obligation towards the legislation. In conclusion, our study found that the majority of medical students indicate support for the ACA and feel they have a professional obligation in assisting implementation. The views of the ACA differ based on student’s political ideology, anticipated specialty, and knowledge of key ACA provisions, but overall, there is optimism that this high level of support can lead to advocacy and successful health care reform down the road.