Why Medical Students Should Care about Public Policy

Conn Carroll / April 07, 2009

Over the past 25 plus years, the Federalist Society has helped establish a conservative legal establishment that has successfully pushed back against the liberal ideas entrenched in law schools and government. Tonight in New York City, the Benjamin Rush Society will host its inaugural under the leadership of Sally C. Pipes, president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute. Pipes recently discussed her project with National Review’s John J. Miller:

MILLER: Why do medical students need to think about public policy? Isn’t that just time spent away from lessons on treating cancer and fixing ingrown toenails?

PIPES: Medical students need to think about public policy because the reforms that are coming to health care under the Obama administration all involve a greater role for government, which will take away their ability to practice the type of medicine in which they’ve been trained. Current legislation threatens to set up a public-insurance plan to compete with private insurers within a national insurance exchange. Mandates will drive up costs of private insurance. I believe that the government plan will be priced lower than the private plans. Therefore, the private insurers will be “crowded out” and we’ll be left with a single-payer, government-run system. (more…)