890–23

Conversation No. 890-23

Date: March 30, 1973
Time: 12:32 pm - 12:56 pm
Location: Oval Office

The President met with John R. Kernodle and James H. Cavanaugh. The White House
photographer was present at the beginning of the meeting.

Greetings

Photographs

President's schedule
-Vietnam War settlement

Medical profession
-Support for President
-Foreign policy
-National defense
-Budget
-Congress
-Influence of American Medical Association [AMA] and doctors in politics

AMA
-Numbers
-Variety of ideologies
 -39-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-23 (cont’d)


-Support for President
-Price controls
-Policy
-Necessity for control on meat
-Boycotts by House of Representatives
-Labor demands
-Wage increase
-Control by market
-Food prices
-Housewives
-Free market
-Medical fees
-Increases in costs
-Price ceilings
-President's program on inflation
-Support
-Phase I and Phase II
-Voluntary restraint by doctors
-Cost of Living Council [COLC]
-Board of trustees
-Conflict with Congressional committee
-Division of institutional and non-institutional practitioners
-Health care costs
-Institutional fees
-Compared with physicians’ fees
-Discussion of issue with Caspar W. (“Cap”)Weinberger
-Physicians' fees
-Small businesses
-Discrimination
-Lawyers
-Dentists
-Architects
-Report for President
-Figures on fees
-Discussion of issue with Donald H. Rumsfeld
-AMA position
-Opposition to discrimination
-Minimal controls
-Organizational controls
 -40-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-23 (cont’d)


-Organizational structure
-Phase III
-Uprising of physicians
-State societies
-County societies
-Unions
-Relief for doctors
-Kernodle's office
-Loss of personnel
-Salary increases
-Group practice
-Curbs
-Income increases
-Control of overall costs
-Education
-COLC
-Health care costs compared with physician costs
-Budget
-Role of doctors
-Professional Standards Review Organization [PSRO]
-Support
-Phase I, Phase II, Phase III
-Administration position
-Rapport with administration
-Elliot L. Richardson
-Members' criticism
-John T. Dunlop
-Meeting with Kernodle
-AMA positions
-Criticism in Congress
-“Socializers”
-Edward M. (“Ted”) Kennedy bill
-Veto
-Political problems
-Need for subtlety
-Problem with Congress
-Dunlop
-Paul G. Rogers
-Work with AMA
 -41-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-23 (cont’d)


-Speech at Rotary Club
-Florida
-Confrontation [?]
-Political involvement
-Commitment to 1974 campaign and elections
-Phase III
-Disruption
-Doctors union
-American Federation of Labor [AFL]
-Congress of Industrial Organizations [CIO]
-Press coverage
-Criticism of AMA
-Washington, DC
-Threat of strikes
-AMA opposition
-California, Florida, Nevada
-Kernodle's support for President
-Need for evidence of administration support
-Mutual understanding
-Dunlop
-Correspondence and statistics
-Meeting with Kernodle
-Report for President

Phase III
-Criticism
-Medical fees
-Restraint
-Institutional care
-Bragging
-Need for relief

Health care
-Socialized medicine
-Problem
-Comparison with health care in England
-US system
-Strengths
-Quality of care
 -42-

NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-23 (cont’d)


-Quality of doctors
-Socialized medicine
-Deficiencies
-Right to medical care
-US medicine
-Comparison with European medicine
-Quality over quantity
-Demagoguery in Congress
-Charge of rich doctors against public
-Lawyers [?]

AMA
-Kernodle’s predecessor
-Support for President
-Florida
-Liberalism

Kernodle
-Undergraduate and Medical schools
-North Carolina
-Elon
-Duke Medical School
-Nurses

Gift
-Golf balls

AMA
-Kernodle's meeting with President
-President’s sympathy
-Dunlop
-Rapport with administration

Kernodle
-Duke University
-Philippines
-Obstetrics and gynecology
-Practice in North Carolina
-Burlington
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NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

Tape Subject Log
(rev. August-2010)
Conversation No. 890-23 (cont’d)


-Duke University staff

Kernodle and Cavanaugh left at 12:56 pm.