Medical Professionals Need to Get More Involved and Change Allegiances
There is a great deal of dissatisfaction among physicians and other medical professionals with the direction of our government-controlled healthcare system. Issues include but not limited to deterioration of the patient-physician relationship, an overwhelming burden of administrative busy work including the mandatory use of government sanctioned electronic medical records, a reimbursement policy that has no relationship to market realities, increasing corporatization of medical care more concerned with profits than optimization of care, burnout, laws that threaten career demise if disagreeing with government dictates, and established medical societies acting more as agents of the federal government than representing the interests of their members (Ref.1,2,3,4). There are a few physicians in Congress trying to address these issues, but their numbers are limited, and their voices overwhelmed by the majority (Ref.5). Yet, physicians as a whole and other medical professionals vote less than other professionals and the general population, limiting their power to address these concerns (Ref.6,7,8).
Our political leaders, the cause of this healthcare system’s rigidity and confusion, are chosen by what appears to be a failed primary system that eschews those with moderate beliefs. Years back candidates were chosen at state and national conventions. What these previous party leaders wanted above all was to win, so they selected candidates based on their impression of appeal to voters who were mostly moderate and best able to address the electorate’s concerns. By the mid-20th century there grew a feeling that this method of choosing candidates was not democratic and should be abolished and replaced by a series of statewide primary elections (Ref. 9). However, the two major parties made no provision about the percentage of their registered members who had participated in the primaries. Those with the strongest views would vote and would select candidates representing their views that were anything but moderate or conciliatory. To encourage turnout and assure the best possible candidate the parties could have insisted that their winning person must receive at least 50.1% of the votes or the selection would revert to the convention. It appears that presently no candidate for election from the primary era has been chosen by a majority of registered voters from either party (Ref.10).
Then there is the practice of one-party funding what they consider the weakest possible candidate in the other party during the primary cycle, hoping that person will lose in the general election (Ref.11,12). Added to this corruption of the primary process is those states that have open primaries in which a person is free to cast a ballot for any candidate regardless of party affiliation and voting for the most extreme candidate to promote his/her defeat.
There is a great deal physicians can do to try to improve the healthcare situation. Support candidates who are committed to give up the cash-cow of big business in healthcare and to move to a much more individualized patient care system that delivers better care at far less cost (Ref.13). Assist those candidates with involvement and money. Join the National Board of Physicians and Surgeons, standing for no need for recertification, but maintaining CME; there is strength in numbers. Leave many of the present older medical societies, i.e., AMA, ACP, AAP, ACS, etc., joining newer ones such as Practicing Physicians of America (Ref.14). Over time, as their members decrease, these established, and now archaic unhelpful and greedy organizations will diminish in influence. And above all VOTE in mass in the primary and general elections for candidates who understand that our healthcare system must be modified if we are to assure personalized care for all Americans, now and in the future.
- Christine Sinsky, What is physician burnout? AMA, July 25, 2022, available at: https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/what-physician-burnout (accessed September 13, 2022)
- Timothy J. Hoff, Why a deteriorating doctor-patient relationship should worry us, Oxford University Press, August 24, 2017, available at: https://blog.oup.com/2017/08/deteriorating-doctor-patient-relationship/ (accessed September 13, 2022)
- Jamie White, The Democrat-led California legislature approved a bill that would punish doctors who” spread misinformation” about the covid-19 vaccine, Your News, September 13, 2022, available at: https://yournews.com/2022/09/05/2408089/medical-censorship-california-democrats-approve-bill-to-punish-doctors-who/ (accessed September 13, 2022)
- Greg Bledsoe, Are Medical Societies Irrelevant for Physicians, medicalspaMD, December 20, 2010, available at: https://medicalspamd.com/the-blog/2010/12/20/are-medical-societies-irrelevant-for-physicians.html (accessed September 13, 2022)
- Physicians of the 117th Congress, AMA, January 4, 2021, available at: https://patientsactionnetwork.com/physicians-117th-congress (accessed September 13, 2022)
- Rachel E. Solnick, Hwajung Choi, Keith E. Kocher, Voting Behavior of Physicians and Health Professionals, J Gen Intern Med, April 2021, available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7822395/ (accessed September 5, 2022)
- Mary Beth Nierengarten, Election Participation Among Physicians Lower Than General Public, ENTtoday, November 9, 2018, available at: https://www.enttoday.org/article/election-participation-among-physicians-lower-than-general-public/ (accessed September 5, 2022)
- Erica Carbajal, Physicians less likely to vote than general public, study finds, Becker’s Hospital Revies, October 23, 2020, available at: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/physicians-less-likely-to-vote-than-general-public-study-finds.html (accessed September 6, 2022)
- U.S. Political Conventions & Campaigns, 1789-1832, 1832-1890, 1890-1960, 1960-1968, 1968-1980, 1980-present, Northeastern University, available at: http://conventions.cps.neu.edu/history/1789-1832/ (accessed September 7, 2022)
10. Erin Duffin, Voter turnout in U.S. presidential primaries by state 2020, Statista, June 21, 2022, available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1102189/voter-turnout-us-presidential-primaries-state/ (accessed September 8, 2022)
11. Benjamin Swasey, Democrats again meddle in a GOP primary, this time in Michigan, npr, July 26,2022, available at: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/26/1113659467/dccc-meijier-gibbs-michigan-gop-primary (accessed September 8, 2022)
12. The Editorial Board, Democrats for MAGA Republicans, WSJ, September 9, 2022, available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-for-maga-republicans-new-hampshire-republicans-don-bolduc-chuck-morse-maggie-hassan-11662759677 (accessed September 10, 2022\
13.. Ken Fisher, Federally Dominated Healthcare: The Political Class’s Cash Cow, Authentic Medicine, August 10, 2022, available at: https://authenticmedicine.com/2022/08/federally-dominated-healthcare-the-political-classs-cash-cow/ (accessed August 10, 2022)
14. Practicing Physicians of America: promoting the interests of working US physicians, available at: https://practicingphysician.org/about/ (accessed September 10, 2022)
I quit the AMA, KMA, and AAFP when they backed the ACA. The profession went to crap well before that, but Obamacare put the final nail in the coffin. For the record, I hate EMRs. It has something to do with old dog and new tricks.
Stewart, Is it if one is to use an EMR then it must be government sanctioned? Paper is still O.K.? Ken
Many good points, but just want to point out that the use of “government sanctioned electronic medical records” is definitely not mandatory. We run a successful practice seeing government- and private-insurance patients, using paper charts. Physicians voluntarily locked that ball and chain to their ankles.
Dr. Payson, Agree with a great deal of what you say, I would add join an independent organization like Practicing Physicians of America and the NBPAS. Thanks for making the effort to reply. Ken
Voting differently is not going to solve this. There is too much money. There is also the rest of the country who votes (which number many more than doctors) who have been convinced that doctors are greedy, overpaid, are to blame, and are not trustworthy. This cancels our votes out. Finally, any primary or other system is flawed as is because the party still chooses and controls who is allowed to run, or whose turn it is, based on personal or organizational feuds and alliances. The voter’s choice is controlled before casting a ballot. The way out of the healthcare system crisis is to get out of it and function independantly