About the ISSUES

Health care decisions should be made by physicians, patients, and patients'
families — NOT the government.

The bond between physicians and their patients has been under attack by government, insurers,
pharmaceutical companies, lawyers and other middlemen for years. It is critical to the future of health
care in America for us to fight any proposal that expands the involvement of outside entities in decisions
related to patients' care, that eliminates free market principles from the health system, or that threatens
the quality of health care in any way.

STOP THE ADVANCEMENT OF GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE.
Congress and the Obama Administration are considering proposals to give government more power to
control the way health care is provided in America. Plans to create a government system of health care
coverage are a real threat to the physician-patient relationship and must be fought at all costs.
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 workers at government-run insurance
providers focused only on a balance sheet determined every year by Congress. The ASMD is fighting
any proposal to expand government control of health care.

MEDICAL LIABILITY TORT REFORM.
Exploding medical liability costs and fear of lawsuits are significantly impacting physicians' ability to
practice medicine. Doctors are being forced to quit or limit their practices, cities and towns are seeing
their medical facilities stop providing high-risk services, and health care providers feel compelled to
practice "defensive medicine" by ordering unnecessary tests and treatments just to avoid lawsuits. These
additional procedures are estimated to cost $70 - $126 billion per year.
Patients must be protected from negligent care, but the costs associated with medical liability and the
impact frivolous lawsuits have on our health care system are seriously compromising our health care
system. The ASMD is working to reform the tort system in America to ensure doctors can do their jobs
without exorbitant liability insurance fees or fear of frivolous lawsuits.