A second Trump administration will accelerate the undermining of the medical profession

By Carmel Shachar. Originally posted in Stat News on Nov. 7, 2024

Unlike the first, Donald Trump’s second campaign was not focused on the Affordable Care Act or health care policy. An Associated Press poll found that most voters did not consider health care very motivating, with only 8% of voters surveyed ranking it as a top issue.

Nevertheless, the results of this election will damage the medical profession. In the past four years we have seen an incredible erosion in the ability of physicians to set the norms and standards for their practices. Instead, judges, politicians, and activists — many without any medical training — have substituted their own judgment for what is appropriate medical care. The legal erosion of the medical profession will only accelerate under the second Trump administration.

Historically, law, medicine, and divinity have been self-regulating. Medical professional organizations, specialty societies, and organizations run by physicians  are the ones who develop both standards of care and standards of practice, including who may become a physician. And the self-regulation of the medical profession allows physicians and patients broad latitude to make the appropriate decision in each case.

But the past four years have seen a significant erosion in the ability of physicians to self-regulate. First, during the pandemic trust in physicians plummeted. One survey, published in the Journal of the American Medical Academy, indicated that between April 2020 and January 2024, trust in physicians and hospitals fell from 71.5% to 40.1%. The same study suggested that individuals with lower trust in the medical profession were less likely to have been vaccinated for Covid-19. Public trust is a necessary component of self-regulating professions. The post-pandemic prevailing general distrust of physicians leaves the medical profession vulnerable to attacks on its ability to self-regulate.

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