In public opinion research by the American Medical Association (AMA) from 2013, voters rated "understanding of the problems facing our healthcare industry, including the bureaucratic red tape that is strangling health care providers and driving up the cost of health care for most Americans" as the most convincing statement of a physician candidate for Congress.
[7] Tom Coburn said, "physicians have watched the profession undergo tremendous realignments that are shifting doctors' responsibilities away from patient care, changes they attribute to the government's inefficacy".
"[7] Physicians "balked at the idea of lawmakers with no medical experience making decisions that could upend the profession", per Andy Harris.
[5] As a possible reason Jim McDermott offered, "politically conservative physicians were more likely to chafe at the direction of changes in health care, with greater oversight by the government and a more regulated role for the private sector.
"[7] During the 2016 cycle the AMA political action committee spent $2 million with "direct contributions to 348 physician-friendly [Congressional] candidates (58% Republican and 46% Democratic)".
[11] In 2013, the AMA funded three focus groups of voters across the country and an online survey to research public opinion on physicians as Congressional candidates.
"[6] Senate candidates in 2014 included "an obstetrician in North Carolina, Milton R. Wolf, a radiologist in Kansas, a liver disease specialist in Louisiana, and Representatives Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey in Georgia, all of them Republicans.