Anti Medical Legislation

Medicine and the legislator-constituent relationship.

A legislator's survival is dependent on his/her ability to listen to his/her constituents and then act accordingly. They say that constituents do not voice concerns about current constraints on medical care so they act accordingly by turning a deaf ear to the concerns voiced by the medical profession. Doctor's abilities to control disruptive changes to their profession, no matter how well intended or forcefully presented to legislators, will go unheard without public support. As a group doctors do not control votes and therefore do not control legislative decision making. Survival for the profession in this situation may depend on its ability to change the minds and actions of constituents (patients) who will, in turn, change the minds and actions of legislators. Constituents hold the key to both physician survival and quality medical care in today's new pay for performance medical reality.

It's not unreasonable to believe that a fully coordinated campaign to inform and educate the public on the hardships resulting from legislated changes favoring Medicare cuts, HIPAA compliance regulations, shrinking reimbursement schedules, and more, instead of favoring quality care would not significantly help medicine's cause. By passing legislators and going directly to the public may be the best way to off set threats to physician livelihoods and to patient care.

To make this happen. To reverse the downward slide in incomes and quality care the profession would do well to consider accepting leadership and guidance from professionals who know how to impact the public directly on their behalf ­ and then to work with that leadership to create a strong voice organized around a proven and time tested information resource, namely marketing, to achieve their goals. Marketing, like it or not, gets the job done. It has played, and will continue to play, a key role to influence and educated in every human endeavor, politics included. It offers the hope of favorable outcomes for medicine.