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Ten Tips to Promote Freedom in Medicine
1. Link to Americans for Free Choice in Medicine: http://www.afcm.org.
Since AFCM’s Web site was created in 1994, we’ve been a reliable
source of free market ideas for medicine. Everyone from students
to seniors uses AFCM’s site as a learning tool. Link to your
favorite AFCM article or to AFCM’s Web site. Send the link in an
e-mail message to your doctor, your insurance agent, your
accountant, your patients, your grandparents, and your friends.
Among those who use AFCM’s site: doctors, insurers, businessmen,
pharmacists, patients, seniors, college professors, students and
reporters.
2. Break the News About Free Choice in Medicine
AFCM produces a general education brochure about AFCM’s goals,
ideas, and membership. Members bring brochures to their doctor
during an appointment—it’s especially personal—and send them
to friends and colleagues. Doctors display brochures in
reception and examination rooms. Employees send brochures to the
company’s president, charitable foundation or employee benefits
manager. Write to
to order brochures, which are available to AFCM Members.
3. Give Friends and Family AFCM’s PulsePreview—for Free
Give PulsePreview, AFCM’s free bulletin with ideas, links
and articles from recent editions of Pulse, to those who
aren’t AFCM members. Invite your doctor, fellow hospital staff
and others to sample AFCM’s ideas, or, if you’re still not sure
if AFCM membership is right for you, send an e-mail message to:
. Get or give
PulsePreview for free.
4. Consider a Health Savings Account (HSA)
Almost every American is eligible for a Health Savings Account (HSA).
Explore the growing variety of HSA products, become
knowledgeable and fully investigate the possibilities. An HSA
may be the perfect tool for you and your family in assuring
high-quality, free choice in medicine with genuine peace of
mind. Become an AFCM Member and receive Pulse, which
provides the latest information and updates about HSAs.
5. Ask About Health Savings Accounts
Ask key persons about a Health Savings Account. Ask your doctor:
do you have an HSA? Ask your accountant: What do you know about
HSAs? Ask your human resources or employee benefits manager:
Does this company plan to offer an HSA and will the company
contribute toward my HSA? Ask your insurance agent: Which firms
sell HSAs? Ask your bank, your insurance company or your health
plan: Do you offer an HSA? Keep asking; answers are forthcoming
and a lack of answers may be revealing.
6. Ask Your Doctor to Become an American for Free Choice
in Medicine
Seek doctors, nurses and medical professionals who actively
support and promote autonomy in their profession and livelihood.
Measure their receptiveness to AFCM’s ideas, let them know that
their willingness to defend the right to practice medicine is
important. Ask them to consider supporting Americans for Free
Choice in Medicine (AFCM) and provide pertinent articles printed
from AFCM’s Web site, AFCM brochures and other educational
materials. A doctor who actively supports individual rights in
medicine is better than a doctor who sanctions his own demise.
Enlisting your own doctor(s) in the noble cause of free
choice in medicine is among the most important goals; we cannot
prevail without the serious support those who practice medicine.
7. Write an Op-Ed
When an issue strikes you—whether medical liability reform,
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), tax reform, or Medicare, HMOs,
and other forms of government intervention in medicine, write an
op-ed (700 words or less) and send it to:
. We’ll consider
using your commentary in a future edition of Pulse or
publishing the article on AFCM’s Web site.
8. Write a Letter to the Editor
Whether you read another assertion that health care is a right
or that capitalism, not socialism, is responsible for America’s
health care crisis, you might be prompted to write a letter to
the editor. Send your letter (300 words or less) to:
. We’ll consider
including your letter in an edition of Pulse or
publishing the letter on AFCM’s Web site.
9. Call Talk Radio or TV News
Don’t leave health policy to TV pundits or talk radio hosts, who
may promote bad, wrong or mixed ideas. Call or send an e-mail to
your favorite program and emphasize a key principle or let the
host know about AFCM. Members might suggest booking an AFCM
Speaker as a guest.
10. Involve AFCM
Seek AFCM’s support for your project or goal. Past involvement
includes: citing an AFCM article, lecture or source for an
op-ed, term paper, legal case or article; distributing AFCM
materials at trade shows, conventions, seminars, college
debates, forums, civic organization meetings and policy-related
events. Invite AFCM to provide a speaker for such events.
Copyright © 2004 Americans for Free Choice in Medicine. All rights reserved.
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