This is the question asked to undergraduate economics students a public health students by Atheendar of ‘Dar he Blogs. One third of the economics student said yes, but all the MPH students said no. Atheender concludes the following:
I think there are two things to take from this. First, there is a great deal of self-selection on the margin of political leanings in public health. Most MPH students tend to identify with democrats/liberals (or, on one of my more cynical days, “pink-os”), which probably is what induces them to pursue a service-oriented field like public health in the first place. (I’m not sure if the causality works the other way: does learning about public health shift people’s voting preferences to the left?).
Second, and most germane to this post, is that, despite what Michael Moore says, not everyone thinks the U.S. health care system is a complete disaster. Slowly but surely, some recent press and research work suggests that the American system isn’t really as bad as it seems when making general comparisons with systems in other OECD countries.