TABLE 2.

Attitudinal Measures Predicting the Political Legitimacy of Physicians

Hypotheses about Declining Legitimacy	Specific Measures from Interviews	Specific Measures from Surveys
Core Hypothesis 1: Doubts about Professional Efficacy
Medical care is ineffec tive.	None	Disagree that “adequate health care is essential for there to be equal opportunity.”
Need is not an appropriate standard.	Disagree that “people should get health care based on needs.”	None
Faith in science has been lost.	None	Disagree with allocating services to meet “basic needs” using “scientifically correct answers”.
Core Hypothesis 2: Doubts about Professional Agency
Physicians are commercially oriented.	Agree that providers are “self-interested and out to make money from medical problems.”	None
Physicians are too sensitive about medical costs.	Agree that “doctors no longer place your well-being above concerns about health care costs.”	None
Needs are not held foremost.	Agree that providers “are no longer committed to meeting the needs of communities.”	None
Physicians do not care about the poor.	None	Agree that a physician-run health care system would be worse for the poor than would a system run by the federal government.
Core Hypothesis 3: The Rise of Countervailing Authority
The federal government's role in health care should be supported.	Agree that “you need national solutions” to address the problems of the current American health care system.	Agree that “it is the responsibility of the government in Washington to help people pay for doctor and hospital bills.”
Employers’ involvement in health care should be supported.	Agree that the American health care system would work better if “workers and managers bargain with one another to decide on health benefits.”	Favors greater influence by business interests over “government health policies and programs.”
Medical consumerism should be supported.	Agree that “each person ought to make the choices” about health care.	Agree that medical care is “not the responsibility of the federal government” and that “people should take care of these things themselves.”
Core Hypothesis 4: Violation of Professional Boundaries
Community involvement should be supported.	Agree that solutions to health problems are best found by “local government or community-based groups.”	Agree that allocating medical care through community-based groups would be “good for the country as a whole.”
Physicians’ political influence is worrisome.	Disagree with the claim that most people are “comfortable having physicians guide policymakers” about health policy.	None
Physicians’ political influence should be reduced.	None	Agree that physicians have too much influence over “government health policies and programs.”