Physician lawmakers see the health care debate up close

The 16 physicians who serve in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have all seem the problems with the current health care system - patients who cannot afford prescriptions, patients who cannot get insurance, and working with the limits of managed care. But they don't agree on how the U.S. should address health care reform. An article this week in the New York Times shows the perspective that these physician lawmakers bring to the health care reform debate. They can agree of a few key points - the importance of insurance portability and eliminating pre-existing conditions. But the physicians, like Congress at large, do not agree about whether a public option should be part of the solution or what that would look like.

Though they do not always agree, the physician lawmakers offer a unique voice in the conversation about the future of health care. These physicians have a unique platform to speak up for their patients and to speak up for all the health care workers who would help them. If they make use of that platform, we will all benefit.