Professional Societies, Political Action Committees, and Party Preferences.
Societies representing physician specialties and other health care personnel commonly have political action committees (PACs). These PACs seek to advance their members' interests through advocacy and campaign contributions. We examined contribution data for health care workers' PACs from the 2010 to 2012 election cycles and found that higher annual income was strongly associated with greater giving to Republican candidates. Patterns of giving may offer insights into various medical workers' party preferences, political leanings, and views of health care reform.
Steven L. Bernstein is with the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT. Carol L. Barsky is with the Department of Emergency Medicine, Yale University, and the Yale-New Haven Hospital. At the time of the study, Eleanor Powell was with the Department of Political Science and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University.
Steven L
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Bernstein
Carol L
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Barsky
Eleanor
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Powell