American Society of Medical Doctors Established to Protect the Bond Between Physicians and Patients; Organizing Doctors to Oppose Government-Run H...( WASHINGTON July 2 /- A new organizati...),Health

WASHINGTON, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- A new organization, the American Society of Medical Doctors (ASMD), has been created to give physicians a unified voice on issues that affect their relationship with patients. The first issue the ASMD intends to tackle is health care reform; the organization will fight proposals for a government-run health care plan that will directly threaten the doctor-patient relationship.

"If these proposals are enacted, the American health care system could be opened up even more to bureaucrats making critical health care decisions instead of physicians with patients and their families. Treatments, procedures, and prescriptions could be mandated not just by middle managers at insurance companies focused only on a balance sheet, but by government bureaucrats at government-run insurance providers focused only on a balance sheet determined by Congress -- few of whom have ever practiced medicine," said Alfred Bonati, M.D., Chairman of the ASMD and Founder of the Bonati Institute.

Insurers, pharmaceutical companies and others are threatened by government-run health care reform proposals, too, and many of them are lobbying against it in the halls of Congress. While their effort is important, it may not be enough to stop the advancement of such plans. Other more general groups are working on this issue as well, but too often they address the issue in political terms; conservatives versus liberals or the right versus the left. Although this issue will be decided by politicians, the ASMD believes this is not a political issue -- it is a medical issue.

"The American Society of Medical Doctors is taking an entirely new approach to advocacy on behalf of our profession. No longer will we stand by while others speak on our behalf. No more will we expect others to defend us from interests that seek to come between us and our patients. Now we will stand up and speak for ourselves. Now we will defend
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