national health insurance system

Letter

The Politics of Doctors

Published: June 2, 2011



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To the Editor:

“As Physicians’ Jobs Change, So Do Their Politics” (“Doctors Inc.” series, front page, May 30) illustrates the fallacy of the doctor-entrepreneur as a model for the delivery of ethical health care in the 21st century.

Doctors have a duty to advocate for their patients, both individually in their offices and collectively in the debate about the provision of health care to society.

In both instances, when a doctor’s concerns about his “small business” conflict with what is best for a patient, the doctor should choose to serve the patient’s best interest.

The use of unindicated tests, invasive procedures and antibiotics are the potential result of a doctor-entrepreneur protecting the wrong interest.

MICHAEL E. SHAPIRO
Hackensack, N.J., May 31, 2011

The writer is the chief of organ transplantation at Hackensack University Medical Center.

To the Editor:

According to your article, “there are no national surveys that track doctors’ political leanings.” There is, however, one statistically valid survey of doctors’ opinion that backs up the idea of a leftward shift.

An article in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2008 showed that support for government establishment of a national health insurance system among doctors nationwide had jumped to 59 percent from 49 percent in 2002.

There was, of course, variation by specialty, with higher support among primary care doctors and less in subspecialties.

STEVEN B. AUERBACH
New York, May 31, 2011

The writer is a pediatrician.