Editorial: An obstetrician in the White House?

Key Points

Ronald Ernest Paul is a native of Pennsylvania who received his medical training at Duke. He completed a residency in ob/gyn at the University of Pittsburgh, after serving as an Air Force Flight Surgeon during the early years of the Vietnam War. He moved to Texas in 1968, where he began his medical practice as the only ob/gyn in Brazoria County. Dr. Paul has delivered more than 4,000 babies, and, perhaps presaging his current antifederalist, libertarian economic leanings, refused to accept Medicare or Medicaid payments for his services, providing care under a customized payment plan instead. After a decade of delivering babies, he leveraged his busy obstetric practice to win election to Congress in 1978. It seems that Dr. Paul had delivered the babies of most of the voting mothers in his congressional district. He has been in Congress ever since.

Looking at the world through a libertarian's eyes

Paul goes by the moniker "Dr. No," since he consistently votes against popular entitlement programs not explicitly authorized by the constitution.³ To his credit, he "walks the talk." In addition to his self-imposed prohibition on accepting taxpayer-funded public health insurance payments for his medical care, he refused to allow his children to accept federal student loans. He also refuses a congressional pension, contending that it is an abuse of power. Not surprisingly, Paul believes that most of our health-care system's problems can be linked directly to inappropriate government meddling. Here are some of Paul's positions on health-care topics: