Legislative & Regulatory Advocacy

 

During the 1996 legislative session, the Maine Legislature asked the Maine Medical Association and the Maine Osteopathic Association to furnish a physician for each day of the legislative session to assist in the event of a medical emergency. Now the "Doctor of the Day" program is well established and legislators are enthusiastic about it.

We need your help to ensure the continued success of this program.

An opportunity to enhance the Visibility of the Medical Profession

At the beginning of each legislative day, the "Doctor of the Day" is introduced in the House and in the Senate. The physician receives a beeper and is free to observe the legislative process throughout the day. We, therefore, need many physician volunteers in order to accommodate the second session of the 124th Legislative Session.

We hope you will join your colleagues at the State House.

What your colleagues are saying about the "Doctor of the Day" program:

"Being the Doctor of the Day at the Legislature is not only enjoyable, it is a great opportunity to meet our lawmakers. It is not unusual for a lawmaker, even one who is not in your particular district, to seek out the doctor and ask an opinion about a particular bill. The doctor has great visibility and can have an impact on measures that are important to the profession."
Adele Carroll, D.O.

"Being Doctor of the Day is a blast. It's a little medicine, a lot of politics, you get rounds of applause in the Senate and the House of Representatives and oodles of appreciation everywhere, and you learn something about how things get done in Augusta. And if you bring some of your paperwork piles, you ought to be able to get to the bottom of two or three. What more could a doc want for a day - other than golf, of course?"
Erik Steele, D.O.

"Participating in the Doctor of the Day program has given me a great opportunity to better understand the legislative process and connect with my local legislators. As physicians, we need to both better understand this process and develop those relationships if we want to impact policy decisions that affect us every day."
Lisa Letourneau, M.D.

Yes, I would like to serve as a "Doctor of the Day"