In late April Dr. Kube attended the Illinois State Medical Society’s annual House of Delegates Meeting as a delegate representing the Peoria Medical Society. Among other things, delegates passed resolutions protecting a physician’s right to practice according to their moral conscience and urging the revision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Each year the Illinois State Medical Society (ISMS) has a meeting, to discuss policies and legislation members would like to support on behalf of the medical community. Delegates, who represent a variety of county or local medical societies from across the state, set the policies.
At this year’s meeting a variety of things were discussed including public health, access to medical care, preservation of physician autonomy and President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Dr. Kube says one of the most important resolutions passed by delegates protects a physicians’ right to practice according to his/her moral conscience.
“Basically, doctors do not have to perform a procedure or provide medical care we find morally offensive,” said Dr. Kube. “So, if you don’t agree with abortions or euthanasia, for example, you don’t have to perform them. It does not change access for those options for patients in any way. All current options remain open. It just allows physicians to act upon their moral conscience in the same way that patients are allowed to do and avoids imposing mandates upon physicians which may violate their moral or religious beliefs.”
Dr. Kube says another important resolution urges the revision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He says while delegates recognized some positives of the act, they identified more negatives than positives because of the way it will change the structure of the medical field and in Illinois.
“For the state of Illinois it looks to add thousands of individuals, costing millions of dollars to the already bankrupt Medicaid system,” said Dr. Kube. “The governor is proposing to cut $1.2 billion out of Medicaid budget just this year to keep it moving forward, it isn’t possible to add millions of added dollars to the system.”
The meeting was April 20 in Chicago. More than 200 delegates attended.
