A Word to Health Care Providers

• How often do you think about leaving medicine?
• Do you view your patients as potential plaintiffs?
• Do you actively discourage your children from going into medicine?
• Do forms, rules, and regulations stand in the way of delivering compassionate care?

Contemporary medicine has lost its soul. Physicians are now pawns trapped in a failing healthcare system rather than practitioners of an ancient and noble art. Guidelines and government mandates strip physicians of their judgment and patients of their autonomy. Our broken medical/legal system pits patient against practitioner and steals the physician's intrinsic satisfaction and love of medicine. Today, contempt encroaches upon compassion.

In spite of this, medicine remains one of the most respected professions of our time. Patients still long for the compassionate care and genuine concern once found within the unblemished walls of their doctor's office. Patients still believe physicians will do no harm and remain patient advocates. However, this implicit trust will fade into the shadows of the past if patients, nurses, and physicians do not unite to recapture the heart of medicine.

Physicians will never compete with the multiple tens of millions of dollars trial lawyers invest in shaping our political and legal systems. Even if trial lawyers invested only one cent of every dollar gained through medical malpractice litigation, this would approach some $100,000,000-enough to single-handedly fund an entire presidential campaign.

Physicians for Reform is a non-profit organization that seeks to unite physicians and their patients in seeking much needed healthcare reform. By placing non-partisan, educational brochures in our offices, physicians can reach tens-of-thousands of patients on a daily basis with a message on healthcare reform. This enables physicians to shape the healthcare debate without giving a dime to politicians.

What you can do.

1. Join our effort.
   
   Physicians for Reform is a grassroots non-profit organization designed to give average, everyday, working physicians a voice in the coming healthcare debate. If you wish to keep medical decision-making in the hands of patients and their physician, join today.
2. Refer us to a colleague.
   
   Grassroots efforts such as this rely on numbers, not the effort of a single individual. If we stand together and lead, we can help shape the coming healthcare debate. The future of healthcare in America will be decided in November of 2008. The time to act is now.
3. Support our effort
   
   There are approximately 700,000 physicians in the United States. Even if only 1% of physicians contributed $500, this would enable physicians to lead the healthcare debate at a national level. By linking abusive litigation to access to care and our skyrocketing healthcare costs, this our moment of political opportunity.

By using non-tax-deductible donations Physicians for Reform can engage in issue advocacy. Donations made through corporations can be made with pre-tax dollars and be considered a business expense. Physicians for Reform is not a Political Action Committee and none of the money raised will be given to politicians. All donations will be used to take our message to the voting public.