On his Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Jacob Goldstein took a look at Tuesday's congressional elections. Check it out:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/11/06/how-many-doctors-are-in-the-house"Enough with the Democrats and Republicans. How did doctors do in Tuesday’s Congressional elections?
Pretty well: There will be at least 14 MDs in the 111th Congress, a pickup of two seats from the current session, the AMA told us.
Ten of the docs are Republicans and four are Democrats. Don’t hold your breath for them to band together to overcome party differences and lead the nation toward health-care reform.
“You’d think the physicians’ caucus would provide leadership to the parties, but it hasn’t worked out that way,” Michael Burgess, a Texas ob-gyn first elected to the House in 2002, told the Health Blog. “In my humble opinion, there aren’t enough doctors in Congress. It leaves us with a pretty narrow group of individuals, and it’s a little harder to build consensus on common ground.”
Even issues where McCain and Obama shared common ground may prove thorny. Take, for example, moving Medicare payments away from the current fee-for-service payment model — an idea many doctors, including Burgess, are wary of. “Had Sen. McCain been successful, I was hoping to work on him about that,” Burgess told us.
All nine docs who ran for re-election in the House of Representatives held on to their seats, according to the AMA. Another, Florida Republican and internist David Weldon, retired. (A family doc ran as a Democrat to fill Weldon’s seat, but lost to a Republican Realtor who has served in Florida’s Legislature.)
There are two docs in the Senate: Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) ran for re-election and won; John Barasso (R., Wyo.) wasn’t up for reelection.
Three MDs were newly elected to the House; another 15 ran and lost (not as grim as it might sound, given the long odds against unseating incumbents). And one Maryland race, in which an anesthesiologist is running as a Republican for an open seat, is still too close to call, the Baltimore Sun reported this morning.
Specialty Bonus: Five of the 14 docs in Congress are ob-gyn, making it the most common specialty on the Hill. (Insert joke about a “national re-birth” or “delivering change” here.) Family medicine comes in second
Pretty well: There will be at least 14 MDs in the 111th Congress, a pickup of two seats from the current session, the AMA told us.
Ten of the docs are Republicans and four are Democrats. Don’t hold your breath for them to band together to overcome party differences and lead the nation toward health-care reform.
“You’d think the physicians’ caucus would provide leadership to the parties, but it hasn’t worked out that way,” Michael Burgess, a Texas ob-gyn first elected to the House in 2002, told the Health Blog. “In my humble opinion, there aren’t enough doctors in Congress. It leaves us with a pretty narrow group of individuals, and it’s a little harder to build consensus on common ground.”
Even issues where McCain and Obama shared common ground may prove thorny. Take, for example, moving Medicare payments away from the current fee-for-service payment model — an idea many doctors, including Burgess, are wary of. “Had Sen. McCain been successful, I was hoping to work on him about that,” Burgess told us.
All nine docs who ran for re-election in the House of Representatives held on to their seats, according to the AMA. Another, Florida Republican and internist David Weldon, retired. (A family doc ran as a Democrat to fill Weldon’s seat, but lost to a Republican Realtor who has served in Florida’s Legislature.)
There are two docs in the Senate: Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) ran for re-election and won; John Barasso (R., Wyo.) wasn’t up for reelection.
Three MDs were newly elected to the House; another 15 ran and lost (not as grim as it might sound, given the long odds against unseating incumbents). And one Maryland race, in which an anesthesiologist is running as a Republican for an open seat, is still too close to call, the Baltimore Sun reported this morning.
Specialty Bonus: Five of the 14 docs in Congress are ob-gyn, making it the most common specialty on the Hill. (Insert joke about a “national re-birth” or “delivering change” here.) Family medicine comes in second
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