Powerful Prescription

SAN FRANCISCO

Here's a prescription for a healthy America: Combine the national political clout of AFSCME with the 25-year experience of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists.

That's just what happened at an August press conference when the UAPD announced its affiliation with AFSCME.

"We now have the resources to counter the mega-greed of HMOs that deprives patients of specialty care and treatment by preventing physicians from practicing the best medicine they can," said UAPD Pres. Dr. Robert Weinmann, a neurologist in San Jose, Calif. (He's also featured in our cover story).

The union, whose banner read "Putting Patients Over Profits," has been fighting for quality patient care since it was founded in 1972. UAPD represents 5,000 salaried and private-practice physicians and dentists.

The California-based union has long planned to go national and reach out to doctors across the country. AFSCME affiliation provides it with a greater capacity for nationwide organizing.

Weinmann explained that the organizing campaign will expose how health care corporations and insurance companies fire physicians and drop patients for economic reasons. "We will attack unfair firing practices whereby doctors who stand by their patients are forced out," he said.

AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee welcomed UAPD to the union, pledging to help free doctors to practice medicine properly. "In their pursuit to post higher and higher profits, health care corporations have reduced patient services by tying doctors' hands behind their backs," said McEntee.

"The real winners in this affiliation are physicians and the patients they care for," McEntee said. "By joining forces, AFSCME and UAPD will give doctors an even stronger voice in decisions about patient care.