McCain's Evocative Speech

Today, I listened hard to the McCain's nomination acceptance for a fleshed-out health policy, but it wasn't there. We heard about oil and other matters - not about the issue that affects the health and well-being of all Americans.

But it wasn't a complete bust. His talk of honor, duty, country and his experiences in and after Viet Nam, tied-in with a discussion earlier in the day during a chance meeting with an old colleague, a health care businessman. Each of us, independently, has noticed the lack of commitment of many young physicians to their profession. They are 9-5ers who check in at 9, leave at 5, have no ongoing responsibilities for patient care when they are off, and live like any hourly factory worker. He summed it up neatly: the older generation gets out of bed in the morning and go to bed at night, knowing that they are physicians; the newer generation are physicians when they put on their white coats from 9 through 5.

It's no accident that each of us has chosen the same community doctor as personal physician since this doctor is imbued with the spirit that we value. His sense of self-worth, professional honor, integrity commitment and duty have not been diminished by trivializing and unrealistic television programs, administrative bureaucracies, arrogant obstructive payers, and destructive political rhetoric. He is a professional.


So there's real American value in what McCain said tonight. His personal values resonate beyond his military service. His military family was overt in its respect for honor, duty and country. My father was a lawyer who patiently explained to me, when I was a youngster, that a commitment to a profession and clients (or patients) is different from any other role in society in terms of trust, integrity and duty. Perhaps it's time to remind our physicians of this difference and the reasons that they are given their license and franchise by society.