TheMommyBlog

Friday, January 23, 2009 Family, News, Politics, Children's Health

This is a comment I left this morning in response to the post entitled Dr. George Lundberg for Surgeon General by Brian Keppler of The Health Care Blog. Needless to say, this is a burning issue, and one that is near and dear to my heart as anyone who had been reading for a while will know!

Disclosure: I am Dr. Lundberg’s stepdaughter.

I have watched my stepfather’s career from the inside for over twenty-five years, and can say that everything that has been said about his professional life carries over to his personal life (not that I will say more about his personal life. I still want to be invited to dinner.). He is, bar none, the best role model for anyone who cares about the nation’s health care, or for their own. He has integrity, a very long view, an infallible moral compass, and an ability to look at matters objectively and see a solution that simply staggers.

He is acutely aware of what’s wrong with the health care system (oxymoron?) and bore frustrated witness to my being unable to obtain health insurance when the company I worked for shut down and ceased COBRA premiums. For nearly a year, I struggled to pay for care as a single (unemployed) mother of three while searching for coverage, which was ultimately granted through HIPPA via an absurdly circuitous route. If this can happen to me, with my knowledge and resources and contacts, it can happen to ANYONE. Just a case in point.

As a family member I may be biased, but I can assure you that there is pure transparency to this man. What you see is what you get, and that is quite a lot and not to be overlooked at this particular time, with this particular administration.

Read Severed Trust. Google his career. Do what you must, but do not let this one get away.

Here is the excerpt that stated his case so well:

The report that Mr. Obama’s Surgeon General choice might be neurosurgeon and CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta produced an upwelling of strong opinion, particularly in the medical community. Some argued that Dr. Gupta has clearly demonstrated his abilities as an able communicator.

But others said that Gupta lacks the experience, seriousness and focus on public health. (I can’t help thinking that anyone who has achieved working neurosurgeon and national TV commentator status is pretty capable and serious, demeanor notwithstanding.)

And so it is that on Facebook, that Dr. Richard Lippin, a longtime Preventive Medicine physician based in Pennsylvania, has posted a letter he sent to President Obama and Secretary Daschle, urging the consideration of Dr. George Lundberg for Surgeon General.

The header reads: “We need a physician with the gravitas and the moral credentials and authority to use this bully pulpit position to speak for science and values based priority public health issues for all Americans. Dr. George Lundberg fits the bill.”

The letter provides a brief bio of Dr. Lundberg, the brilliantly eclectic, progressive, Alabama-born, down-to-earth physician who has been a visible mainstay of American medicine for decades. Dr. Lippin doesn’t mention Dr. Lundberg’s landmark 2002 book on American health care and reform, Severed Trust. (The title alone provides a lot of insight into Dr. Lundberg’s view of the world.)

But Dr. Lippin does believe the Surgeon General choice is about healing both America and American medicine, He writes, “we have a genuine crisis on many levels in US Medicine. Also we need desperately for the medical profession to regain its moral and ethical foundations and furthermore we also need medical leaders who must regain the trust of the American Public which has been dangerously eroded.

I agree with Dr. Lippin that those are the tasks, and I agree that Dr. Lundberg is a terrifically suitable candidate. Over many years, I have developed a warm friendship with him. It is impossible to not be bowled over by his range and grasp of issues, and by his unswerving willingness to stand clearly and openly for approaches that are tied to evidence and reason. The ultimate critical thinker, his judgments are founded most closely to merit, possibility and an unshakable belief in the correctness of the pursuit of excellence in health.

He is also bold and politically savvy. You don’t become the longest running Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (until he got politically at odds with them) and then build Medscape into the most widely read Web resource for clinicians worldwide unless you can continuously strike the delicate balances between science, sensibility and moral imperatives among your peers. Read more…