More physicians are choosing politics for a second career, according to a paper by Matthew N. Goldenberg, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale.
Goldenberg’s research, published in the Southern Medical Journal, reveals a substantial increase in the number of physicians who have served in Congress since 2000.
According to the paper, the increase may potentially reflect “the greater political prominence of health care issues, as well as increased interest by and recruitment of physician-candidates.”
Goldenberg, who has been on the faculty at Yale since 2013, searched Congressional biographical records and found 27 physicians representing 17 states have served in Congress since 2005.
The high at any one time came after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law in 2010.
Biographical records of Congressional representatives reviewed by Goldenberg reveal there were seven physicians in Congress in 1945, but that by 1983 there was only one member. Membership began to increase in 1987.
Men have dominated physician-membership since 2005 (92.6 percent), and most physician-members have been Republicans (81.5 percent). A majority represented southern states (63 percent), and 44 percent held other political offices before being elected to Congress.
Goldenberg wrote that membership of physicians peaked after the 2010 signing of the PPACA into law.
“During periods when health care is a particularly key issue, physicians – because of their perceived expertise on the subject – may be particularly popular candidates,” Goldenberg wrote. “Sensing and trying to foster this appeal, political parties and other organizations may be recruiting more physicians to run for office.”
He concludes that more physicians will likely seek office because health care remains a prominent political concern.