In letter delivered today to the U.S. Senate, seven organizations representing close to a half a million doctors expressed their strong support for passage of health care reform in 2009. (This is apart from the crucial AMA endorsement of the House health reform bill.). 

With members practicing along "the frontlines of medicine," the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Student Association, the American Osteopathic Association, Doctors for America, and the National Physicians Alliance urged Congress not to delay in passing strong health reform that guarantees all Americans have access to quality affordable health care:

Some people believe that patients are better off in today's disorganized insurance market. We believe that the health care our patients receive will be better within a reformed system. As physicians and future physicians, we stand in firm support of the patient-centered changes being outlined in Congress. We are confident that the reforms being proposed will allow us to provide better quality care to our patients, while preserving patient choice of plan and doctor.

Continuation of the status quo is a steep pathway to growing cost of and decreased access to quality health care for all Americans. Our patients cannot wait another year, another term, another day. We must take advantage of this historic opportunity for change and enact meaningful comprehensive health care reform.

To further this message of reform, the AAFP partnered with the Herndon Alliance to launch the Heal Health Care Now campaign. The web-based initiative is a call to action for individuals to join with these physicians in supporting health reform. You can hear some of the physicians' powerful personal perspectives in the video above and in the coming weeks, we'll be following up with the some of the doctors you see above, to hear more about why health reform cannot wait.