Today's
US News & World Report had a nice piece on
the debate over whether gun violence should be considered a "public health" issue, and they quoted me as explaining why it should
not be:
But some medical providers say doctors should stay out of the debate.
Dr. Paul Hsieh, co-founder of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine,
says he views gun crime and violence as predominantly about criminal
justice and individual rights.
"I remain deeply skeptical of any attempts to frame important public
policy debates as also 'public health' issues, especially when it
concerns a long-running political controversy," says Hsieh, who writes
on health care policy from a free-market perspective for Forbes.com.
"Pretty much any public policy issue will ultimately have some sort of
effects on the lives and well-being of Americans – but that doesn't mean
they should all be considered topics of 'public health.'"
People are concerned that sharing information about gun ownership with doctors may not remain private, he wrote in a Forbes piece. "In short, I believe this undermines the critical doctor-patient trust necessary for the good practice of medicine," he says.
I thought they characterized my views fairly, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they even turned the quote into one of the lead
article graphics!
