 
I am Jane Orient, Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and one of 50 Past Presidents. I am in the solo practice of private medicine in Tucson, AZ. I speak as a physician who is bound by the Oath of Hippocrates. By my Oath, I must refrain from doing harm to my patients, and I must abstain from mischief and corruption. I may not promise my patient a three-minute remedy and then give her a deadly potion. Furthermore, I must "follow that method of treatment which according to my ability and judgment I consider for the benefit of my patients." I may not subordinate my judgment to that of a secret council. I may not sacrifice my patient's welfare to a social agenda. I may not deny my patient a cancer treatment or heart surgery so that his resources can be used to benefit someone with a higher social priority, such as a person who is entitled to a free checkup. I want the best medical care for my patients and for all Americans. We cannot provide the best until we get the cost down. We will not lower costs by abolishing the Oath of Hippocrates and destroying the patient-physician relationship. The Oath of Hippocrates dates to the fifth century B.C.; the acceleration of American medical costs dates to 1965. Costs skyrocketed because the government got into medicine. Costs will not decrease until we get the government out of medicine - out of private physicians offices, where regulations are driving physicians out of business, especially in rural areas and inner cities; out of hospitals, where compliance costs add a huge administrative overhead; out of the pharmaceutical industry, where government adds $250 million to the cost of marketing a single new drug; out of the medical marketplace, where government intervention has destroyed the normal economic mechanisms that keep costs reasonable in a free market. We need to bring patients back into the financial equation. We must allow patients to benefit from their prudent spending and saving decisions. All Americans should be permitted to use pre-tax dollars to establish a medical savings account. To preserve excellence in American medicine, we must preserve patients' freedom of choice - not turn it into the sham of picking Monolith A or Monolith B, both offering the same government- dictated benefits package. If the government forces us all into a bureaucratically managed system, we will still have something called "health care," delivered by persons called "health care providers." But such a system will have no place for ethical physicians, whose Oath forbids them to accept a situation of conflict of interest with their patients. Government bureaucracy has never controlled costs. The promise of universal access to comprehensive service under a global budget and government rules is, in a word, bankrupt. Government officials do not take an oath to do no harm. What a government system can accomplish is to destroy the art and science of medicine in these United States of America. |