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.

Who should be the next surgeon general?

The news that neurosurgeon and CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is being considered for the post of Surgeon General has raised a lot of opinions. Some people want to dismiss Dr. Gupta as a television personality who lacks the policy experience for the post. But others welcome the thought of another high profile Surgeon General, someone the public would know and trust, and who might be able to encourage and enable the public to become active in personal health issues.

The opinions and questions mirror some of the questions that emerge in discussions of interpersonal communication and relationships between physicians and patients. Technical skill is important, but where do the trustworthiness and personality fall? Are patients better off with a highly technically skilled, but gruff physician, or a moderately skilled physician with excellent interpersonal skills? Which doctor will get the better outcomes: the one with technical competence or the one personable enough enable the patient to take better care of their own health? And why do we often find ourselves assuming that physicians cannot be both technically skilled and skilled communicators? There are doctors who are both technical and personable, Dr. Gupta arguably being one of them.

What do you think?