Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) Dr. Jane M. Orient, M.D., underscores the critical importance of maintaining independent medical practitioners.

“… AAPS was founded in 1943 to preserve private medicine. And that means the physician is working for the good of his patients, like it says in the Oath of Hippocrates, not for the good of the organization, or society, or the political party, or the advancement of science, but each individual patient is the doctor’s first priority.

… We found that physicians in independent practice are able to do this. But, once a doctor has an employer, or he has a managed care plan where he’s restricted to what’s on ‘the dropdown menu,’ then his hands are really tied.

… So, for a patient to have an independent doctor who is not under quite so much severe restrictions on what he can do is extremely important.”