Editorial: Obama kills useful health study

Kudos to the Obama administration. Wait, never mind, spoke too soon. Just four days after its announcement, the White House, caving to criticism from doctors and Republicans, has called off a "mystery shopper" survey intended to gauge the accessibility of health care in the United States. It would have hired callers to pose as publicly or privately insured patients trying to schedule appointments.

The results of the study would have given health care experts new, empirical insight into the nation's shortage of primary care physicians. Some 45,000 more will be needed by 2020. It would have also revealed the disturbing disparity in access between the publicly and privately insured. The survey's cost was only $347,370.

Based on the evidence so far, the health care system is not in good shape. According to a troubling study by the University of Pennsylvania released earlier this month, 66 percent of publicly insured children were denied appointments for specialty care, compared with only 11 percent of privately insured children.

Ensuring equal health care access for all, especially with an additional 30-million people expected to be insured under the new law, will be a priority as well as an obstacle. Whether the far-reaching Affordable Care Act can address this problem -- and if so, to what extent -- will require objective research and feedback.

But unless the administration decides to change its mind (again), these questions will remain unanswered. hN