Will Doctors in the House, Senate Influence Debate?

By Sarah Lovenheim
As Congress crafts health-care reform legislation, a look at the doctors serving the House and Senate indicates the sort of expertise some members might bring to the table.

The House includes at least 12 doctors. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, eight members are Republicans and four are Democrats.

House physicians include (in alphabetical order):
Paul Broun (R-Ga.),
Charles Boustany (R-La.),
Michael Burgess (R-Tex.),
Bill Cassidy (R-La.),
Phil Gingrey (R-Ga),
Steve Kagen (D-Wisc),
Jim McDermott (D-Wash.),
Parker Griffith (D-Ala),
David "Phil" Roe (R-Tenn.),
Ron Paul (R, Tex.),
Tom Price (R-Ga.),
Vic Snyder(D-Ark.)

The Senate has a smaller coterie of physicians. We know of just two M.D.-holding members: Tom Coburn (R.-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). A spokesperson for Senator Coburn says the senator's medical background affords him "a first-hand look at what works and what doesn't on government health care." Coburn specialize in medicine and obstetrics and has delivered more than 4,000 babies in his lifetime.

An expertise in women's health is most common among those M.D.-holding members of Congress, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The number of doctors in Congress today pales in comparison to the number of M.D.-serving congressmen and senators during the first century of the United States, but it seems signficant when you consider that over a 44-year period (1964 to 2004) only 25 members were physicians.

The Journal of the American Medical Association says it's a shame there aren't more: "The current need for physician leadership in shaping health care is especially important. Despite the increasing role of health care in the overall economy and the escalating complexity of scientific issues debated in Congress, physician participation as elected members has been limited."