Now Is the Time: Physician Involvement in Health Care Reform

Physician involvement in health care reform must go beyond the roles of organized medicine, and must occur on a local as well as national level. We outline a variety of ways for practicing physicians to become involved in health care reform and in redefining the fundamental purposes of the health care system. Our actions as physicians during the next few years can help shape reform. The choice now is to lead or be left behind.

Health care reform is necessary. The public recognizes that the United States stands alone among developed nations in failing to ensure access to health care for all its citizens, in the high cost of its health care, and in the large and growing disparities between the health of its advantaged and its disadvantaged citizens [1]. Political leaders and advocates for business and human services recognize that uncontrolled health care costs are consuming resources needed for other social programs and for economic growth. The results of the 1992 election were a clear message about the public desire for change, including reform of the health care system. The issue now is not whether there will be reform but what configuration the reform will take. Our actions as physicians during the next few years can help shape reform, shape our future role in the health care system, and shape public esteem for the profession. We can either lead or be left behind.

Many physicians' organizations—The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Internal Medicine, the Society for General Internal …