One of the most interesting things about health politics and policy is that those mostly responsible for driving health costs — physicians — are the least concentrated interest group. If we want to know what the research-based pharmaceutical industry, the generic drug industry, the health insurers, the hospitals, or the medical-device makers want, we know where to go to find a fairly unified answer.
Physicians have no unified voice. The closest thing to a professional association for all physicians should be the American Medical Association, but it is not. It is a business that profits from a government-sanctioned monopoly on billing codes.
So, how do physicians engage the increasingly politicized healthcare system? They have dramatically increased their political donations, according to a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Furthermore, as the proportion of women practicing medicine has increased, so has the tilt towards Democrats.
Read the entire article at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
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