Law & Politics

Presidential Politics and Physicians

March 21, 2008 | By JC, MD | Bookmark and Share | 2 Comments

When it comes to politics, it’s difficult to be a physician these days. There are many strong candidates in the presidential primaries this year. From the Republican side you’ve got a very ethical leader in John McCain. For the Democrats you’ve got a very charismatic and young Barack Obama and a very smart and battle-tested Hillary Clinton. All of them have very interesting ideas about the healthcare system and improving access to medical care.

Physicians as a voter demographic are a tough nut to crack. Surgeons and wealthier physicians usually align with republican principles of lower taxes, small business support, and separate public and private health systems. Public health and primary care physicians generally tend to align with democratic principles of improving access to care to all individuals and more socialized medicine. In general physicians tend to be altruistic individuals who entered medicine to help others. Yet medicine is a profit driven industry. Thus, there is a little democrat and republican in every physician.

Healthcare is and will continue to be a hot-button issue in presidential politics. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution to the healthcare mess. What is clear is that the government simply cannot afford to pay to take care of its aging population. Additionally, it cannot afford to take care of its young or immigrant population. It really cannot afford to take care of everyone who lives within its borders. Attempting to do so would bankrupt the country, significantly cut the wages of anybody who works in healthcare in any capacity, and would significantly drive down the discovery of new medicines and technological advances to help people.

We live in an economic system of “give and take.” There is no free ride for anyone anymore. To give to someone literally means taking from another in terms of budget allocation.

Unfortunately, the future of budget cuts and decreased reimbursement appear gloomy, regardless of whether you are Republican or Democrat. The end of the current healthcare system will come in this lifetime. The question is to we want the change to be slow and painful or fast and potentially more or less painful?

Any change within the healthcare system will be felt by all — physicians, patients, anybody and everyone who works in and utilizes the healthcare system. Regardless of who is president, we know change is coming soon. How are we going to deal with it?

2 Comments

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April
March 21, 2008 | Permalink

John McCain is “very ethical” according to…? He condones torture! After being tourtured himself. Please explain that kind of crazy logic to me. And then try to convince me that torturing other people is ethical (Reminder: Torture is not only against the law according to the rules that much of the industrialized world agreed upon but also has been proven repeatedly to be ineffective because basically most people will say anything to not be tortured. It’s medieval.).

What is clear is that our government simply cannot afford to pay to take care of its aging population with the system like it is. Additionally, it cannot afford to take care of its young or immigrant population (unless you’re a Native American, we’ve all come from immigrants). It really cannot afford to take care of everyone who lives within its borders. Attempting to do so would bankrupt the country (as opposed to what is happening now?), significantly cut the wages of anybody who works in healthcare in any capacity (There is such a wide range of salaries in healthcare that this is not true across the board. Having an unlimited income is not an American right, especially at the cost of others. We could raise the salary of nurses and limit the salary of doctors for a start.), and would significantly drive down the discovery of new medicines and technological advances to help people (New medicine and tech advances come from more places than just America and are dependent on more than just money allocation. Wanna talk Big Pharma profits? They can’t afford to take a paycut?).

As a country we need a great shift in thinking, from individualist/short-sighted to more cooperative if we’re going to survive as a nation. Even more so if we’re going to survive as a species.

Alf
March 21, 2008 | Permalink

If there is no solution (as usual) the less evil will be selected. As politicians always do.