Government

Doctors front and center at health system reform rally at White House

President Obama says physicians offer some of the most trusted voices in the debate.

By David Glendinning — Posted Oct. 7, 2009

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President Obama assembled scores of physicians at a White House Rose Garden event Oct. 5 to ask for their help in moving a health system reform bill over the finish line this year.

Obama said the roughly 150 doctors in attendance hailed from all 50 states and represented numerous organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American College of Pediatrics. The president quipped that the physicians, who donned white coats for the event, came from "red states, blue states, recalcitrant states, high-cost states, low-cost states, rural and urban states."

The physicians had agreed to fan out across the nation after the event to help the White House make the case for reform, Obama said. As the event occurred, members of the Senate Finance Committee were trying to put the finishing touches on the only pending health reform measure that has yet to receive committee approval.

"Nobody has more credibility with the American people on this issue than you do," he said. "And so if you're willing to speak out strongly on behalf of the things you care about and what you see each and every day as you're serving patients all across the country, I'm confident we are going to get health reform passed this year."

The Rose Garden gathering helped herald a "historic opportunity" to enact reform in 2009, said Rebecca J. Patchin, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees, who attended the event. "Physicians see firsthand the problems in our health system, and through health reform we can improve the system so that it works for patients and physicians."

Mona Mangat, MD, an allergist and immunologist from St. Petersburg, Fla., was one of four physicians who stood next to Obama while he made his case for reform. She described reform as inevitable.

"Just of my physician colleagues, over half a million people are supporting reform," Dr. Mangat said. "So this is the right time for it."

But the physician members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus said Obama's event belied the fact that many physicians remain worried about the expansion of public health plans envisioned by the White House and Democrats in Congress. "While he's managed to gather a few like-minded doctors for this publicity stunt today, there is no question that most health care professionals recognize that inserting government bureaucrats into the doctor-patient relationship is not the prescription for what ails our health care system," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, MD (R, Ga.), co-chair of the Doctors Caucus.

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