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Changing physicians' politics

As Physicians’ Jobs Change, So Do Their Politics

By Gardiner Harris
The New York Times, May 30, 2011

Doctors were once overwhelmingly male and usually owned their own practices.

But doctors are changing. They are abandoning their own practices and taking salaried jobs in hospitals, particularly in the North, but increasingly in the South as well. Half of all younger doctors are women, and that share is likely to grow.

There are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors’ advocates in those and other states.

Because so many doctors are no longer in business for themselves, many of the issues that were once priorities for doctors’ groups, like insurance reimbursement, have been displaced by public health and safety concerns, including mandatory seat belt use and chemicals in baby products.

“It was a comfortable fit 30 years ago representing physicians and being an active Republican,” said Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association. “The fit is considerably less comfortable today.”

But doctors in Maine have abandoned the ownership of practices en masse, and their politics and points of view have shifted dramatically. The Maine doctors’ group once opposed health insurance mandates because they increase costs to employers, but it now supports them, despite Republican opposition, because they help patients.

Dr. Nancy Cummings, a 51-year-old orthopedic surgeon in Farmington… went to work for a hospital, sees health care as a universal right and believes profit-making businesses should have no role in either insuring people or providing their care. She said she was involved with the Maine Medical Association, for the most part, to increase patients’ access to care.

Dr. Lee Thibodeau, 59, a neurosurgeon from Portland, still calls himself a conservative but says he has changed, too. He used to pay nearly $85,000 a year for malpractice insurance and was among the most politically active doctors in the state on the issue of liability. Then, in 2006, he sold his practice, took a job with a local health care system, stopped paying the insurance premiums and ended his advocacy on the issue.

“It’s not my priority anymore,” Dr. Thibodeau said. “I think Gordon and I are now fighting for all of the same things, and that’s to optimize the patient experience.”

Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, the president of the A.M.A., said that changes in doctors’ practice-ownership status do not necessarily lead to changes in their politics. And some leaders of state medical associations predicted that the changes would be fleeting.

Dr. Kevin S. Flanigan, a former president of the Maine Medical Association, described himself as “very conservative” and said he was fighting to bring the group “back to where I think it belongs.” Dr. Flanigan was recently forced to close his own practice, and he now works for a company with hundreds of urgent-care centers. He said that in his experience, conservatives prefer owning their own businesses.

“People who are conservative by nature are not going to go into the profession,” he said, “because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/health/policy/30docs.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all

Comment: 

By Don McCanne, MD

Anecdotes and hearsay are not the same as scientifically conducted surveys, but most of us who have been around for a while have seen the trends described in this article. Many physicians seem to be less concerned about personal involvement in the business of medicine and are seeking out approaches that “optimize the patient experience,” and in so doing are optimizing their own professional practice experiences.

Dr. Kevin Flanigan, a former president of the Maine Medical Association, represents the old guard. He says that conservatives prefer owning their own businesses and “are not going to go into the profession because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore.”

AMA President Cecil Wilson doesn’t believe that physicians will change their politics simply because of a change in practice ownership status. That view may be held by the old guard, but those now entering the profession who care more about patients than they do about running a business may well align themselves politically with those who believe in health care justice.

This reminds me of another personal anecdote. When I was interviewed for my application to UCSF by revered pediatrician Moses Grossman, he asked me what I would do if I wasn’t accepted into medical school. I told him that I was confident that I would be accepted somewhere, but, if not, I would most likely become a school teacher. He asked me why I thought he asked that question. I said that I assumed that he wanted to be sure that I had the practical sense to consider other options since realistically many did not make it into medical school. He then said something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “Suppose you told me that instead you would take over your uncle’s fur business… “

The old guard can have their fur business equivalencies, and hopefully they eventually will go the way of that heartless industry. Let’s welcome the new guard who have decided that they would prefer to join our growing ranks of compassionate, humanitarian stewards of the healing arts.

Changing physicians’ politics

As Physicians’ Jobs Change, So Do Their Politics

By Gardiner Harris
The New York Times, May 30, 2011

Doctors were once overwhelmingly male and usually owned their own practices.

But doctors are changing. They are abandoning their own practices and taking salaried jobs in hospitals, particularly in the North, but increasingly in the South as well. Half of all younger doctors are women, and that share is likely to grow.

There are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors’ advocates in those and other states.

Because so many doctors are no longer in business for themselves, many of the issues that were once priorities for doctors’ groups, like insurance reimbursement, have been displaced by public health and safety concerns, including mandatory seat belt use and chemicals in baby products.

“It was a comfortable fit 30 years ago representing physicians and being an active Republican,” said Gordon H. Smith, executive vice president of the Maine Medical Association. “The fit is considerably less comfortable today.”

But doctors in Maine have abandoned the ownership of practices en masse, and their politics and points of view have shifted dramatically. The Maine doctors’ group once opposed health insurance mandates because they increase costs to employers, but it now supports them, despite Republican opposition, because they help patients.

Dr. Nancy Cummings, a 51-year-old orthopedic surgeon in Farmington… went to work for a hospital, sees health care as a universal right and believes profit-making businesses should have no role in either insuring people or providing their care. She said she was involved with the Maine Medical Association, for the most part, to increase patients’ access to care.

Dr. Lee Thibodeau, 59, a neurosurgeon from Portland, still calls himself a conservative but says he has changed, too. He used to pay nearly $85,000 a year for malpractice insurance and was among the most politically active doctors in the state on the issue of liability. Then, in 2006, he sold his practice, took a job with a local health care system, stopped paying the insurance premiums and ended his advocacy on the issue.

“It’s not my priority anymore,” Dr. Thibodeau said. “I think Gordon and I are now fighting for all of the same things, and that’s to optimize the patient experience.”

Dr. Cecil B. Wilson, the president of the A.M.A., said that changes in doctors’ practice-ownership status do not necessarily lead to changes in their politics. And some leaders of state medical associations predicted that the changes would be fleeting.

Dr. Kevin S. Flanigan, a former president of the Maine Medical Association, described himself as “very conservative” and said he was fighting to bring the group “back to where I think it belongs.” Dr. Flanigan was recently forced to close his own practice, and he now works for a company with hundreds of urgent-care centers. He said that in his experience, conservatives prefer owning their own businesses.

“People who are conservative by nature are not going to go into the profession,” he said, “because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/health/policy/30docs.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=all

Anecdotes and hearsay are not the same as scientifically conducted surveys, but most of us who have been around for a while have seen the trends described in this article. Many physicians seem to be less concerned about personal involvement in the business of medicine and are seeking out approaches that “optimize the patient experience,” and in so doing are optimizing their own professional practice experiences.

Dr. Kevin Flanigan, a former president of the Maine Medical Association, represents the old guard. He says that conservatives prefer owning their own businesses and “are not going to go into the profession because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore.”

AMA President Cecil Wilson doesn’t believe that physicians will change their politics simply because of a change in practice ownership status. That view may be held by the old guard, but those now entering the profession who care more about patients than they do about running a business may well align themselves politically with those who believe in health care justice.

This reminds me of another personal anecdote. When I was interviewed for my application to UCSF by revered pediatrician Moses Grossman, he asked me what I would do if I wasn’t accepted into medical school. I told him that I was confident that I would be accepted somewhere, but, if not, I would most likely become a school teacher. He asked me why I thought he asked that question. I said that I assumed that he wanted to be sure that I had the practical sense to consider other options since realistically many did not make it into medical school. He then said something I’ve never forgotten. He said, “Suppose you told me that instead you would take over your uncle’s fur business… ”

The old guard can have their fur business equivalencies, and hopefully they eventually will go the way of that heartless industry. Let’s welcome the new guard who have decided that they would prefer to join our growing ranks of compassionate, humanitarian stewards of the healing arts.