Obama Taps FP to Become Next Surgeon General

Family physician Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A., has spent the past 20 years caring for some 2,500 of Alabama's working poor in the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic she founded along the state's Gulf Coast. But President Obama's announcement earlier today that Benjamin is his choice for the nation's top physician post could mean she'll spend the next few years focusing on a much larger patient population.

Obama formally introduced Benjamin, an Academy member since 1987, as his nominee for U.S. surgeon general during a press briefing in the White House Rose Garden.

The president praised Benjamin's commitment to caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay for their health services. And he lauded her perseverance in rebuilding her clinic after Hurricane Georges destroyed it in 1998, again after Hurricane Katrina leveled it in 2005, and yet again when it burned to the ground on the eve of its reopening.

"For nearly two decades, Dr. Regina Benjamin has seen in a very personal way what is broken about our health care system," Obama said. "She's seen an increasing number of patients who've had health insurance their entire lives suddenly lose it because they lost their jobs or because it's simply become too expensive. She's been a relentless promoter of prevention and wellness programs, having treated too many costly diseases and complications that didn't have to happen. And she's witnessed the shortage of primary care physicians in the rural and underserved areas where she works.

"But for all that she's seen and all the tremendous obstacles that she has overcome, Regina Benjamin also represents what's best about health care in America -- doctors and nurses who give and care and sacrifice for the sake of their patients; those Americans who would do anything to heal a fellow citizen."

AAFP President Ted Epperly, M.D., of Boise, Idaho, greeted the news enthusiastically. "Here is a wonderful example of a family physician who has worked in the trenches all her life, and for her to get picked -- it's a dream come true," he told AAFP News Now.

"The AAFP could not be prouder to have a family physician like Dr. Benjamin be the next surgeon general," Epperly added. "She is exactly the type of person that our health care system needs at this critical time of health care transformation. She will bring a family physician's touch and sensitivity to our nation's most pressing health care problems and is exactly 'what the doctor has ordered' to move the United States to a better health care system."

Naming a number of her own family members who have perished from preventable diseases, Benjamin said during the press briefing that she welcomed the opportunity to help create a health system that better serves Americans. "I want to ensure that no one -- no one -- falls through the cracks as we improve our health care system," she said.

"These are trying times in the health care field. And as a nation, we have reached a sobering realization: Our health care system simply cannot continue on the path that we're on. Millions of Americans can't afford health insurance, or they don't have the basic health services available where they live," said Benjamin, who served in the National Health Service Corps to repay her medical school debt.

"My hope, if confirmed as surgeon general, is to be America's doctor, America's family physician," she said. "As we work toward a solution to this health care crisis, I promise to communicate directly with the American people to help guide them through whatever changes may come with health care reform."