Page 9 - Summer 2024 Bulletin

President’s Message (continued)
tively seeking to improve the delivery and outcomes of health- care, someone is actively working to destroy it in their favor to make more profit.
If you feel like you’ve lost autonomy and control in your own practice, it’s because you have. And while physician apa- thy and myopia are partially to blame, the only way we are go- ing to get it back is by physicians coming together and work- ing with each other to fight back and take back medicine in the US. There’s a famous saying in politics, “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” Physicians gave up their seats long ago, perhaps in the name of being too busy, willfully oblivi- ous, or apathetic. When they tried to get back, they had been replaced and no longer in charge of medicine in the US.
That’s where we need organizations like the HCMA, an or- ganization that has existed for 129 years. Its mission statement
is simple, yet elegantly demonstrates the goal of the organiza- tion: “advocating for physicians and the health of the commu- nities we serve.” Its pillars are advocacy, education, charity, community, and wellness. The HCMA works to better the lives of physicians in Hillsborough County. But it is only as strong and powerful as its members and their involvement. We have some of the brightest minds in Hillsborough County in the HCMA. Imagine what a group of driven physicians working together to empower themselves and patients can accomplish with the proper refinement and motivation? The HCMA is your ticket to the table—what we do with that seat is up to us. The time is now to work with organizations like the HCMA and FMA to take back and fix medicine. We cannot repair the US healthcare system without physicians working together to take back leadership and ownership over patient care. Will you join us?
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HCMA BULLETIN, Vol 70, No. 1 – Summer 2024 9