Physicians Need Not Apply

California Condor #32 in Grand Canyon - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the next Attorney General of the United States. He received a bachelor of arts in political science from Cornell University where he was a member of the Students for Democratic Action. For the next ten years he worked as a community organizer in San Francisco. From that period until this appointment he served as a paid political consultant. "

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. She is the daughter of the former governor of Ohio. After receiving a master's degree in public administration, she worked for nine years as the Executive Director and Chief Lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. From 1987 until her present appointment she has been a professional politician."

In the first case it would be difficult to imagine the Attorney General of the United States not going to law school. His affiliation with the clandestine Students for a Democratic Society would raise some grave concerns about his suitability to be named the chief law enforcement officer of the land. In the second case it is just as strange that the official charged with running the organization responsible for the health and well being of the American public is not a physician. The fact she worked intimately with trial lawyers for nearly a decade and later spent twenty years as a politician does not polish her resume.

The first case is fiction. The second could be as well, but it describes the background of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. The legal community never would permit one who is not their own to serve as Attorney General. The medical profession is silent when a non physician with questionable credentials becomes a powerful voice in national health policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services in the principal United States government agency for protecting health and providing essential human services. It has the largest budget of all federal departments - exceeded only by the United States itself and the expenses of the entire German government. It accounts for 40% of all federal government spending. The department is responsible for Medicare, Social Security, the National Institute of Health (the world's largest medical research center), and the Food and Drug Administration which regulates products which account for 25% of all spending by United States consumers.

One only had to witness Secretary Sebelius' press conference when the swine flu scare first caught our attention. She read a prepared statement reasonably well, but when it came to answering questions from reporters, she struggled with the most rudimentary aspects of the epidemic. Without a science background or clinical experience, she appeared helpless. Fortunately for her, a competent and articulate physician from the Center for Disease Control stood in the wings to pluck her from her plight.

In the current health care reform debate, we physicians have little meaningful representation. In both the legislative and executive branches our numbers are few and in many cases important positions which should be filled by a physician are left to politicians and bureaucrats.

It is time for the nation's physicians to insist the qualifications for the Secretary of Health and Human Services be based on merit and not political patronage. Appointments circumvent the electorate, and all too often connections trump competence. It is ludicrous to imagine a convenience store clerk as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve or a ballet dancer as the Secretary of Defense, but it is just as inane to name the former Chief Lobbyist for the Kansas Trial Lawyers' Association as the Secretary of Health and Human Services.