Drs. No

The American Medical Association is telling Congress it opposes public health insurance that "mandates physician participation” because “many physicians and providers may not have the capability to accept the influx of new patients that could result.”

The AMA is too discreet to say openly what its lobbyists have been telling such sympathizers as Karl Rove--that "many doctors limit how many Medicare patients they take" because they "can afford only so much charity care."

As one of 45 million beneficiaries of such medical profession largesse, I am reminded of a provision in the classic Hippocratic Oath:

"Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves."

In modern times, such prudish injunctions apparently do not extend to financial matters, and doctors want to preserve their freedom to do with their billing what may be prohibited in other areas.

When President Obama addresses the AMA next week, he will undoubtedly put it more tactfully, but the time has come to redefine that aspect of the classic doctor-patient relationship.

CIA Health Care

The lawyers wrote the torture memos, but the medical profession was there to implement them.

According to the Washington Post, "documents show a steady stream of psychologists, physicians and other health officials who both kept detainees alive and actively participated in designing the interrogation program and monitoring its implementation...

"Most of the psychologists were contract employees of the CIA, according to intelligence officials familiar with the program."

The Bush Administration was apparently as active in corrupting doctors as lawyers in violating AMA policies that physicians "must not be present when torture is used or threatened" and may treat detainees only "if doing so is in their best interest" and not just to monitor their health "so that torture can begin or continue."

The Bush version of the Hippocratic Oath apparently interpreted health care as keeping patients alive and well enough to endure continuing abuse, an ethical position that would not have offended Dr. Josef Mengele of Nazi concentration camp fame.

With the economy taking up so much attention, it has been easy to forget just how bad the past eight years of lawlessness have been.

"The health professionals involved in the CIA program broke the law and shame the bedrock ethical traditions of medicine and psychology," says the chief executive of Physicians for Human Rights, an international advocacy group of physicians against torture. "All psychologists and physicians found to be involved in the torture of detainees must lose their license and never be allowed to practice again."

The next time you visit your family doctor, you may want to check his resume for a stint of government service in the past decade.