Is There A Doctor In The House?

Who would you trust more when it comes to the nutrition and health of your children – a doctor or a lawyer? And no, this is not a trick question!

The elections are over (thankfully!) and the noise of the pre-election debates has been reduced to a more tolerable level. I don’t know about you, but I found my head spinning towards the very end with all kind of talk about the economy, national security, healthcare, energy policy, education, job growth and so on. So many big topics, so many big words, and so many big plans! Now that it is all over, can we look forward to some progress?

You are probably doubly confused. First I ask you about doctors and lawyers, and then I seem to babble about the elections! What is going on…you ask. I know, this is a little off-topic for this blog, but hang on.

I decided to write this post because a recent blog post in the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog caught my attention. Seems like there are going to be a total of 14 docs in the next Congress (111th) – 12 in the House and 2 in the Senate. That is just bout 2% of the total Representatives and Senators. Can they really influence the debate over health and nutrition issues? The WSJ’s post quotes Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican and ob-gyn first elected to the House in 2002:

“In my humble opinion, there aren’t enough doctors in Congress. It leaves us with a pretty narrow group of individuals, and it’s a little harder to build consensus on common ground.”

So who has the bigger blow-horn in Congress? I wondered. Hmmmm…maybe lawyers – they seem to be everywhere! Here is what I found (Note: data is for the 110th Congress)

Even though I made the right guess, I was not mentally prepared for this large a difference, and the significant power of the lawyers, particularly in the Senate. Suddenly, I don’t see a whole lot of HOPE!

If this peeked your curiosity, here are a few more interesting facts for your information:

There were only 25 out of 2196 members of Congress were Physicians (a tiny 1.1%) during the 44 years between 1960 – 2004. Most were Republicans and Ob-gyns (figure that!) (Journal of American Medical Association)
It wasn’t always this bad – nearly 11% of the signers of of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 were physicians; and in the first 100 years of the US Congress, 252 out of 5045 (nearly 5%) were doctors. (Same source as number 1)
During the same period (1960 – 2004), 82% of the membership came from the fields of law, business, public service, education and military. (Hint: pick the right profession if you want to be in politics!)
The first Child Nutrition Act was adopted in 1966, which declared its purpose as “to safeguard the health and well being of the Nation’s children”. It also included special supplemental requirements for Women, Infants and Children (WIC).
In 1966, there were only 4 doctors in the Congress when the Child Nutrition Act was passed. Obviously, we have made some progress since then, but not a whole lot!
Currently there are two physicians in the Senate – Senator Tom Coburn (Republican, Oklahoma; Family Medicine/Ob-Gyn) and Senator John Barrasso (Republican, Wyaoming; Orthopedic Surgeon)

Will the next Congress make significant progress on Healthcare?