With the dawn of a midterm election year and major issues affecting the nation’s health system on the agenda, questions arise about the role physicians should play in discussing political topics with patients.

In a recent JAMA opinion essay, Harvard Medical School Professor Jerry Avorn, MD, argued that “a strong case can be made that rather than being a taboo subject, discussing transformational changes in health care coverage with patients could be seen as a core responsibility of all clinicians—physicians, nurses, pharmacists, therapists.”

Such communications are “necessary to ensure the capacity of health care professionals to continue to provide patients with the health care they seek from us,” he added. “The intimate connection between coverage and clinical care also offers a direct and unassailable way to communicate this information.”

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics has guidance for physicians on this sensitive issue.

My lede at AMA Wire. The whole shebang.