Election: U.S. House has four family physicians
Election Day 1998 increased the number of family physicians in the U.S. House of Representatives by one.
Ernest Lee Fletcher, M.D., of Lexington was elected to represent the 6th District of Kentucky. Fletcher is a Republican.
The other family physicians serving in the House are Tom Coburn, M.D., a Republican from Muskogee, Okla.; Vic Snyder, M.D., a Democrat from Little Rock, Ark.; and Donna Christian-Green, M.D., a Democrat who serves as the delegate from the Virgin Islands. All three of these incumbents were re-elected.
Thanks to Fletcher's win, FPs are now officially .9 percent of the entire House, which is more than any other specialty. Other specialties in the House membership, at one apiece, are obstetrics-gynecology, plastic surgery, internal medicine and ophthalmology. The Senate has one physician member, a surgeon.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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