Friday, October 26, 2012

"None of the concerns raised above imply that we object to these governmental roles." What?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23075183


 2012 Oct 18;367(16):1557-9. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsb1209858.

Legislative interference with the patient-physician relationship.

Source

American College of Physicians, Philadelphia, USA.


"Increasingly in recent years, legislators in the United States have been overstepping the proper limits of their role in the health care of Americans to dictate the nature and content of patients' interactions with their physicians. Some recent laws and proposed legislation inappropriately infringe on clinical practice and patient–physician relationships, crossing traditional boundaries and intruding into the realm of medical professionalism. We, the executive staff leadership of five professional societies that represent the majority of U.S. physicians providing clinical care — the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Surgeons — find this trend alarming and believe that legislators should abide by principles that put patients' best interests first. Critical to achieving this goal is respect for the importance of scientific evidence, patient autonomy, and the patient–physician relationship.
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None of the concerns raised above imply that we object to these governmental roles. But we believe that health legislation should focus on public health measures that extend beyond the individual patient and are outside the capacity of individual physicians or patients to control. In contrast, government must avoid regulating the content of the individual clinical encounter without a compelling and evidence-based benefit to the patient, a substantial public health justification, or both."

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