Achieving health care reform: how physicians can help.

This year, we have the best chance in a generation of enacting legislation worthy of being called health care reform and of setting the United States on the path to high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans. The recent commitment by several major stakeholders — including the American Medical Association — to slowing the growth of health care spending is a promising development. But the controversy about whether the organizations actually agreed to a 1.5-percentage-point reduction in annual spending growth is just one indication that success is still far from assured. Two threats in particular put reform at risk: conflicting doctrines (regarding the creation of a new public insurance option and government support for comparative-effectiveness studies) and opposition to change among some current stakeholders. In the face of this uncertainty, physicians have a choice: to wait and see what happens or to lead the change our country needs. We'd prefer the latter. (June 11, 2009)