Editor’s Note: Bipartisan Physicians and health care experts gathered at the Free to Care Physician Symposium in Washington, D.C., earlier this year. A white paper1 offering a roadmap drawn by a coalition of organizations made up of working Physicians and industry experts entitled, “Reducing Cost and Waste in American Medicine A Physician-Led Roadmap to Patient-Centered Medical Care,” was presented by authors C. L. Gray, M.D., founder, Physicians for Reform2 and Marion Mass, M.D. co-founder, Practicing Physicians of America3. The following is an abridged version of the white papers premise.

“The cost of medical care—and access to medical care itself—now sit atop the list of worries for American households.

“In years past, the debate over healthcare reform centered on the autonomy of individual patients and their physicians. Who should control the personal and complex process of medical decision-making? The patient in consultation with the physician? The insurer? Perhaps an agency of the state government? The federal government?

“At the heart of the matter, we have the patient and the physician. Yet, they have little control over actual costs and waste. We have even reached the absurd point where the ‘rules of the system’ sometimes prevent physicians from caring for the sick, the very people they swore to protect.

“America’s fiscal house tilts toward collapse as waves of red ink lap against its foundation. Both American businesses and the workforce struggle to succeed under the ever increasing cost of medical care.

“Meanwhile, the middle class shrinks under the crushing costs of insurance and treatment, costs which make it impossible to save and get ahead.

“America must understand WHY we pay so much for healthcare and waste so much in the process. We must pull back the curtain and expose the drivers of cost.

“Who better to present these solutions to the problems besetting our nation’s healthcare system than the practicing physicians who have dissected the drivers of cost?

“Physicians have devoted their lives to helping those we see in the exam rooms, emergency rooms and operating rooms across this great nation. It is time we fulfilled our Hippocratic Oath in a new way. It is time that we inform our fellow Americans of the barriers to quality, affordable medical care.” 

1 Full white paper available on Practicing Physicians of Americas website

2 https://www.physiciansforreform.org/

3 https://practicingphysician.org/