RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Physician’s Role In Health Care Reform
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Practice
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 163
OP 167
DO 10.3122/jabfm.6.2.163
VO 6
IS 2
A1 Kirkegaard, Margaret A.
YR 1993
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/6/2/163.abstract
AB Health care in the United States is in crisis. The desire to provide care continually confticts with the need to contain costs. Historically, physicians have opposed the demand for health care reform, and although many physicians have responded to the current crisis with ambivalence, apathy, or frustration, they have the knowledge, capability, and opportunity to advocate for and to effect reform within the health care delivery system. Many believe that the acknowledgment of costs as a factor in treatment decisions compromises their role as patient advocates, but in the face of increasing government controls and the corporatism of medicine, the human link between physician and patient is even more valuable. The current crisis in health care necessitates cost control. If physicians conscientiously undertake their political, professional, and personal roles, they can reform the health care delivery system in the United States while compassionately advocating for their patients.