Why I Belong to SDCMS-CMA

When I first joined the San Diego County Medical Society (SDCMS) in 1966, membership was a requirement for admission to the staff and for surgical privileges in San Diego hospitals. Malpractice premiums jumped from $900 a year to $20,000 in the first eight years of practice. I turned to my local medical society and the state association for help. Help was so slow in coming that a group of young Turks from Los Angeles formed the United Physicians of California, and I joined them as the leader of the San Diego contingent. CMA and SDCMS leaders feared that the Justice Department of the federal government would impose severe fines on all members if they were to lead a concerted public action in violation of antitrust statutes.

Despite these hazards, Gordon Freeman, MD, president of SDCMS, paid for a hall at the Mission Bay Hilton Hotel where 800 San Diego physicians gathered in 1974 to protest the unconscionable escalation of malpractice premiums. In a short span of time following these events, I became first, a councilor (trustee), then a candidate for president. I was defeated twice, but, as luck and perseverance would have it, I became president-elect of SDCMS in 1981. Political and socioeconomic issues persisted even after the enactment of MICRA in 1975. I was now hooked on recognizing the problems physicians faced and wanted to do all I could to help.

In 1988, I was privileged to be elected to serve as a trustee for the California Medical Association (CMA) along with Bob Penner, MD, and Don Wilson, MD. On a trip to visit the Imperial County Medical Society (ICMC) in our capacity as CMA trustees, we discussed how to respond to then-SDCMS president William Renert’s observation that San Diego was next in line to propose a candidate or CMA president. Due to substantial personal conflicts, both of my good friends and fellow trustees made me draw the short straw, and I was elected CMA president-elect in 1993.

In my view, the most valuable aspect of all my activities in organized medicine has been serving as a team player rather than as emperor. More than anything else, I learned to ask for advice in areas of personal ignorance or weakness. It is an experience that has been both humbling and enlightening. I would wish it on any physician who has the tenacity and courage to stick by his or her convictions.