http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/health/policy/30docs.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&pagewanted=allDoctors were once overwhelmingly male and usually owned their own practices.
But doctors are changing. They are abandoning their own practices and taking salaried jobs in hospitals, particularly in the North, but increasingly in the South as well. Half of all younger doctors are women, and that share is likely to grow.
There are no national surveys that track doctors? political leanings, but as more doctors move from business owner to shift worker, their historic alliance with the Republican Party is weakening from Maine as well as South Dakota, Arizona and Oregon, according to doctors? advocates in those and other states.
Because so many doctors are no longer in business for themselves, many of the issues that were once priorities for doctors? groups, like insurance reimbursement, have been displaced by public health and safety concerns, including mandatory seat belt use and chemicals in baby products.
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"People who are conservative by nature are not going to go into the profession," he said, "because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore."
Comment by Don McCcanne, PNHP: Anecdotes and hearsay are not the same as scientifically conducted surveys, but most of us who have been around for a while have seen the trends described in this article. Many physicians seem to be less concerned about personal involvement in the business of medicine and are seeking out approaches that "optimize the patient experience," and in so doing are optimizing their own professional practice experiences.
Dr. Kevin Flanigan, a former president of the Maine Medical Association, represents the old guard. He says that conservatives prefer owning their own businesses and "are not going to go into the profession because medicine is not about running your own shop anymore."
AMA President Cecil Wilson doesn't believe that physicians will change their politics simply because of a change in practice ownership status. That view may be held by the old guard, but
those now entering the profession who care more about patients than they do about running a business may well align themselves politically with those who believe in health care justice.This reminds me of another personal anecdote. When I was interviewed for my application to UCSF by revered pediatrician Moses Grossman, he asked me what I would do if I wasn't accepted into medical school. I told him that I was confident that I would be accepted somewhere, but, if not, I would most likely become a school teacher. He asked me why I thought he asked that question. I said that I assumed that he wanted to be sure that I had the practical sense to consider other options since realistically many did not make it into medical school. He then said something I've never forgotten. He said, "Suppose you told me that instead you would take over your uncle's fur business... "
The old guard can have their fur business equivalencies, and hopefully they eventually will go the way of that heartless industry.
Let's welcome the new guard who have decided that they would prefer to join our growing ranks of compassionate, humanitarian stewards of the healing arts.My comment: It isn't easy being really good at more than one thing, and the skill set of practicing medicine is different from the skill set of running a small business. Better to have our medical practitioners focusing on the former.
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