Newport Beach, California–As the health care reform debate gains renewed focus in Washington, Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM), a non-profit patient education organization, has designated a new executive director. AFCM, founded in 1993, is America’s only grass-roots educational organization based on individual rights, personal responsibility and free market ideas in medicine.
AFCM has named Richard E. Ralston its executive director. Ralston, who served on active duty in the United States Army for 7 years, has a comprehensive background in media. Mr. Ralston, a supporter since AFCM was founded in 1994, was editor of books published in 1991, Communism: Its Rise and Fall in the 20th Century, and in 1999, Why Businessmen Need Philosophy.
“Every day physicians and their patients continue to be confronted with constraints on their ability to make free decisions about medicine,” Ralston said. “I think the time has come to take a stand against the heavy hand of government in the medical profession.”
“We must give voice to the rights of the individual patient and of each physician to make his or her own decisions regarding their health or medical practice,” he said.