About Doctors on Strike
Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine is a private, nonprofit, educational, and partisan-activist organization founded by Dr. Gregory L. Garamoni on July 4, 2009, to take on the mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting freedom in healthcare in the United States of America. The founding of Doctors on Strike on Independence Day purposely coincides with the 233rd anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Doctors on Strike is based on the principles recognized and published in our own founding document, the Declaration of Independence for Doctors:
- That doctors and patients have the same inalienable individual rights that all citizens have -- the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness;
- That the purpose of government is to secure individual rights, not violate them;
- That individual rights impose limitations on government;
- That statism in healthcare violates individual rights;
- That the statist healthcare proposals being advanced by the Administration and Congress would violate individual rights and gravely threaten the viability of the healthcare system;
- That doctors, patients, and elected officials need to act — now — to preserve, protect, and promote individual rights and freedom in medicine.
We stand with great appreciation on the shoulders of the many intellectual giants and nonpartisan organizations who, for many years now, have been educating the public about individual rights and freedom in medicine (American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, Cato Institute, Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine, The Heritage Foundation, and others).
What sets Doctors on Strike apart from these fine "nonpartisans" is that we are a partisan-activist organization that can "take the gloves off" to take on public officials without worrying about our tax-exempt status being revoked. This allows us the freedom to publish pointedly partisan pieces here that can't found elsewhere, including edgy satire and irreverent humor (see "Hey, ObamaCare, Are You Up for A Game of Chicken?"). We will try to strike an acceptable balance between the need for objectivity in thought and the need for passion in action in living our whole lives well, as both rational and political animals (as Aristotle would remind us). Our ideal is to be passionately reasonable and reasonable passionate.
Consistent with our partisan-activist mission, we will identify and work openly to support those candidates for elected offices at the state and federal level who champion individual rights and liberty in healthcare. We will also unhesitatingly identify and publicly target for defeat any candidates for elected offices who support statist public policies that violate individual rights and infringe on liberty in healthcare.
We have a more immediate, urgent goal for 2009: The defeat of the statist healthcare reform proposals presently circulating through Washington. We are calling on doctors to prepare themselves to go on strike against any more government-run healthcare programs. We are calling on doctors to let the country know now that doctors will go on strike if the President signs into law any legislation that establishes another government healthcare plan. By promising to go on strike before Congress votes, doctors send two powerful messages to the electorate and their elected officials:
- Doctors will NOT participate in any new government healthcare plans, and
- Doctors will also STOP participating in all other government healthcare programs, including, but not limited to Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and SCHIP.
About Dr. Garamoni
Gregory L. Garamoni, Ph.D. is a practicing clinical psychologist in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, master's degree in psychology from Fairfield University, and doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed a clinical psychology internship at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and residency at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He has taught courses to undergraduate and graduate students; delivered presentations to professional audiences and community organizations; and authored 20 peer-reviewed publications. Within academic circles, he is perhaps best known for the “States of Mind Model,” which holds that emotional well-being is characterized by an optimal balance between positive and negative thinking, and that emotional illness is marked by deviations from this optimal balance.Dr. Garamoni’s career has had three distinct phases over the past 37 years. He spent the first 10 years of his career in corporate settings, where he held progressively more responsible positions in human resources with Citibank, GTE, and PepsiCo. During the last three years of this period, he lived in Athens, Greece, where he was PepsiCo International’s Personnel Director for the Middle East and Africa. During the second phase of his career, he spent another 10 years in academic settings pursuing graduate and post-graduate training in clinical psychology. The third phase of his career began 17 years ago when he opened a private practice in Ponte Vedra Beach. As a Florida licensed psychologist, he provides therapy and testing services for children, adolescents, and adults.
Public Comment
Doctors on Strike welcomes comments. They should be sent to Gregory L. Garamoni, Ph.D., Executive Director, Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine, 2304 Sawgrass Village Drive, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082, or email.
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