Growing Number of Americans Distrust Doctors and Hospitals

Written by Brownstone Institute on September 13, 2024. Posted in Current News

A new paper in JAMA Network Open analyzes survey respondents in the U.S. over the period of time right after the COVID-19 pandemic started in April 2020 and through early 2024.

It reveals a significant decline in trust in physicians and hospitals, dropping from 71.5% in April 2020, to 40.1% in January. Lower trust levels were strongly associated with a reduced likelihood of receiving COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters. Total shocker, right?

One incredibly interesting part of this study was the revealing of the open-text responses that survey respondents gave for their lack of trust.

From the supplement (see eAppendix 1), here are the top four themes of why patients have lost trust:

1. Financial Motives Over Patient Care: This theme includes perceptions of healthcare as primarily profit-driven, where financial incentives outweigh patient welfare. Respondents believe that decisions are made based on profitability rather than the best interests of patients.

2. Poor Quality of Care and Negligence: Responses that mention experiences of neglect, inadequate care, misdiagnosis, or dismissive attitudes from healthcare providers fall under this category. This also includes perceptions of healthcare professionals not listening or taking patient concerns seriously.

3. Influence of External Entities and Agendas: Here, the focus is on the belief that decisions in healthcare are unduly influenced by pharmaceutical companies, government entities, or other external powers. This includes suspicions of dishonesty or withholding information for nonmedical reasons.

4. Discrimination and Bias: Responses indicating experiences or beliefs that healthcare providers exhibit bias, discrimination, or lack of cultural competency. This can include racial discrimination, gender bias, or insensitivity to patient backgrounds.

Another interesting analysis in the supplement was the inclusion of political affiliation.

The tendency for Republicans and Independents to have lower trust overall than Democrats should not surprise anyone, as the polarization of vaccines, masks and lockdowns made it clear that the left was in favor of doing anything at all in the name of combating COVID-19, no matter the cost.

As we witnessed firsthand in 2020 and 2021, and even today, the condescension, overt political motivations and outright derision directed at those who were rationally skeptical of a brand-new vaccine, masks and the extreme and harmful lockdown policies by medical practitioners and hospital systems have finally led to an inevitable consequence: the public simply does not trust them anymore.

And not by a small margin — there has been a massive swing from majority trust to majority distrust. For anyone who was paying attention, this is not shocking.

For my part, I hope that the practitioners we truly need to rely on when we require medical care see this as a wake-up call and understand just how much damage they have done to their long-term doctor-patient relationships.

Now, instead of starting from a place of trust, they are starting from a deficit. This is not just bad for their careers; it’s bad for the patients.

Originally published by Brownstone Institute.

Josh Stevenson lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a data visualization expert who focuses on creating easy-to-understand charts and dashboards with data. Throughout the pandemic, he has provided analysis to support local advocacy groups for in-person learning and other rational, data-driven COVID-19 policies.

His background is in computer systems engineering and consulting, and his bachelor’s degree is in audio engineering. His work can be found on his Substack “Relevant Data.”

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