The Three Keys to Successful Legislative Advocacy

People have written entire books about the art of negotiation and the nuances of successful advocacy. Busy professionals such as physicians do not have time to read about art or nuances — we need a bottom line.

I have distilled my experience into three bottom-line points that I believe will serve you well. Success is never guaranteed, but if you follow these three points, I guarantee that you will never really “fail.”

RESPECT ELECTED OFFICIALS (AND THEIR STAFF)

Nothing you or I will ever do as a physician will put us in the position of living in the crucible of public opinion as much as an elected official. Only an elected official knows what it is like to have their every vote scrutinized by not just the public but the media, both of whom often lack all the facts but still have the constitutional freedom to publicly criticize at will. And at election time, every elected official knows that their every opinion and vote stands to be distorted by their opposition into something evil, which is then stuffed into every local, high-propensity voter’s mailbox or displayed on television.

Whether you agree or disagree with an elected official about a given issue, or even about their entire political philosophy, you must give these folks their due. They have taken on something that the vast majority of us could never even attempt to do in a credible fashion.

I cannot emphasize this enough. If you are not capable of being respectful to a broad philosophical range of elected officials, stop reading now and instead seek out other physicians to be involved in legislative advocacy.

Finally, staff members are also worthy of our respect. The staff of elected officials are usually underpaid, under appreciated and over blamed. And, in many cases, particularly in Washington, DC, they are at times flat out overworked.

RESPECT YOUR ADVERSARIES

In the vast, vast majority of cases, those who oppose us on issues actually believe what they are saying. They may be lacking in the appropriate background or experience, such as non-physicians seeking a scope-of-practice expansion, or just have an entirely different view of the world, such as bikers who want to ride helmet-free and feel the wind in their hair. It is important that we never allow our disagreements with our adversaries to in any way diminish our fundamental respect for the fact that they are willing to stand up for what they believe in the first place.

By way of example, I for one sincerely believe that the trial lawyers who want to weaken or repeal the MICRA law are wrong, wrong, wrong on that issue, but I also believe that most do in fact believe that MICRA infringes on the rights of those truly harmed by medical malpractice. I have also fought for years with the State Chamber of Commerce over their slavish devotion to the agenda of health plans, but I have never doubted that most of their advocates have truly believed that CMA’s managed care reform agenda would have made health insurance unaffordable to millions who currently are insured.

To ascribe evil motives to one’s opponents in the legislative arena is a losing strategy. Many of our opponents do it to us, in fact, and it almost always ends up being to their detriment.

RESPECT THE TRUTH

This should be an easy one. In the end, all that we have as advocates for the profession is our credibility. As hard as it is, in a profession where we are always supposed to have all of the answers, many of us need to learn to say “I don’t know, but I can find out”, when responding to the questions of an elected official or their staff member.