Handling Health Reform Inquiries: Greet the Heat with Facts

Health system reform has generated heated exchanges and debate recently. It's a hot issue for physicians, too, with members of the medical profession covering the gamut of opinions.

Regardless of a physician's position on the issue, the Pennsylvania Medical Society is urging its members to be a source of facts and a calming influence for patients who are worried.

"Every day, physicians explain complex diseases and conditions to people who are emotionally charged up," said Peter S. Lund, MD, founder of the Institute for Good Medicine at the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

"We can do the same with the complexities of health system reform."

Following are some resources physicians can use:

What's fact and what’s fiction? Two websites dissect political speeches and commentary. Politifact.com is a project of the "St. Petersburg Times" while FactCheck.org is from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
Find a side-by-side comparison of House and Senate legislation and other analysis at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation website
Read the Pennsylvania Medical Society's "Eight Essential Principles for Health System Reform"

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Last Updated: 8/26/2009

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