Robert E. Hertzka, MD

ROBERT E. HERTZKA, MD

Candidates for:

AMA Delegate (incumbent, opposed by Wayne Iverson, MD)

Term:

Three Years

Candidate Statement:

In these most challenging of times, I have become the first San Diego County
physician in decades to actually reach the senior policymaking ranks of AMA.
Last year I was elected unanimously by the 475 delegates of AMA to be one
of only nine physicians on their Council on Medical Service. This Council is
charged with developing virtually all of the socioeconomic policy for AMA,
and I am now there to represent the interests of San Diego County’s
physicians.

Times have never been more challenging for us. While headline after
headline highlights the nation’s escalating economic woes, physicians have
been economically pounded for decades. We have had to deal with
underfunded Medicare and Medicaid programs, unfunded mandates on our
cost of practice, and private health insurers who have been so abusive in their
practices that they were successfully sued as racketeers just a few years ago.

Against these challenges, I have been honored to be aggressively
representing the physicians of San Diego County in various capacities for
nearly 20 years, including as your SDCMS president in 1999 and your CMA
president in 2004–05. And I continue to be fully engaged at the local, state,
and federal levels — all while maintaining a full-time practice and teaching
two health policy courses at the UCSD School of Medicine.

Finally, I would note that on the federal level, in addition to my active
participation on your behalf in AMA affairs, I continue to travel to
Washington, DC, several times each year to stay in touch with many in
Congress, including our five local representatives. And, as recently as last
summer, I spent two hours on the phone one morning to convince wavering
members of Congress to support reversal of a pending Medicare physician
payment cut — just as the vote was about to taken.

I respectfully ask for your support to be re-elected as one of your
AMA delegates.