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LETTERS TO
THE EDITOR

To the Editor,
I wish to support the article by Dr. Alexan- respond by saying it is a good idea to support the officeholders in
der Kenton entitled “A Call to Arms” in the your district. However, there are key players at both the state and
January edition of San Antonio Medicine. After national level. There are committee chairs and particular voices that
holding leadership positions in both TEX- have a great deal of influence. These individuals may need support
PAC as well as AMPAC, I would often hear in elections and they may not live in your district. You may not know
two frequent reasons for physicians not participating. who they are unless you actively keep up with legislative action. A
The first reason was the reluctance to feel like they were buying PAC has the ability to identify these individuals all over the state
votes by supporting a candidate. I would say in response that the and country and make sure they have adequate support when run-
very last thing I wanted was a legislator whose vote could be bought. ning for reelection.
We could never keep up with the finances available to the insurance Thirdly, the physician community has to be strong politically. This
industry or to the trial bar. Our goal was always to elect people who is how we achieved TORT reform in Texas. This is how we estab-
philosophically had the same viewpoints held by the Texas Medical lished prompt payment legislation regarding insurance companies.
Association and the American Medical Association. This is going Hopefully this will be how we maintain a tradition of pluralism with
to become increasingly important as we hear an increasing number regards to healthcare financing. If we fail to accept this political
of people call for a single-payer system in the United States. We challenge to remain active, we will have no one to blame but our-
have to be able to stand strong and support the concept of plural- selves if healthcare goes in a direction we do not support.
ism with regards to healthcare.
The second reason for lack of participation was the feeling that Sincerely,
physicians would support congressmen and state officials in their SHELDON GROSS, MD
district. They felt no need to get involved in other races. I would Past President, Bexar County Medical Society

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