Bert is of course right. We have allowed ourselves to be duped. We have the wrong set of ethical principles to win this battle.
Like our fellow citizens who have lost their jobs, retirement, health insurance, homes, etc. in the economic meltdown, we assumed the people we elect will do what they were elected for, and what they promised. Instead, they accept money for influence and fail to do even the most basic investigation before they pass legislation.
Look at what is happening with health care reform now. Obama giving a speech on healthcare reform with Allscripts' CEO and election contributor Glen Tullman sitting behind him (Allscripts asks $18,000.00 per physician license for their EMR). Now Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus is accusing the Congressional Budget Office of obstructing the administration's health care plan (with hard financial facts). Politicians only believe the facts that support their positions.
Most of them are attorneys. "Attorney ethics" consists of taking the position you are paid for, and manipulating the facts to support it. I have also taken part in "lobbying days" to talk to my state legislators. A couple of practicing docs and I sat in a waiting area with a half dozen lobbyists for our 10 minutes. For our time we got smiles and excuses. Oh, and the state senator's aide called back later asking for "re-election support". These people don't deal one-on-one with a sick person in the office with no resources. Unlike us, their money-based value system allows them to dismiss such people as unimportant.
I wish I could recommend a physicians' strike. Does anyone remember what happened in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1962 when 90% of doctors closed practices to protest a compulsory, government-run health plan? The province brought in doctors from other provinces and Britain's NHS, set up clinics, and killed the strike. The doctors that went on strike were demonized. The provincial governments rolled out their present system with no significant physician resistance.
