In 2008, the Pacific Research Institute (PRI) created the Benjamin Rush Society (BRS), an organization with the goal of becoming one of the most important educational efforts in the fight against government-controlled medicine and the incremental emergence of a government monopoly over health care in the United States. From the first debate in 2009, the Benjamin Rush Society (BRS) has achieved steady consistent growth, tripling the number of events since the 2010-2011 academic year. Starting off as a division of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), BRS is now prepared to operate as a fully independent organization. Incorporated on Jan. 14th, BRS received official IRS recognition as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization on April 17th of this year. Adoption of our new name, the Benjamin Rush Institute (BRI) along with transfer of funds and complete formal separation from PRI is planned to occur mid-July. Modeled on the success of the Federalist Society, the BRI is an organization composed of medical doctors, residents, fellows, medical students, and other health care professionals who believe that the profession of medicine calls its practitioners to serve their patients, rather than the government. The Benjamin Rush Institute believes that the doctor-patient relationship is sacred and central to effective medical care. In order for this relationship to provide the greatest benefits both to patients and to society at large, physicians and patients must be free to choose whether to enter into, and maintain, this relationship or not. Furthermore, the decision-making authority must remain within the doctor-patient relationship, with minimal influence from bureaucracies. Benjamin Rush believed in these principles a, was a leading doctor in the American founding era, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He believed in the profession of medicine and in the founding principles of America, and he viewed them as complementary, not mutually exclusive. Pipes was the intellectual progenitor of the BRS, and laid the groundwork for establishing the organization with a founding exploratory conference on May 8, 2008 in Washington, D.C. Twenty leading free-market professors of medicine, physicians, health economists, and think tank executives—including Gene Meyer, president of the Federalist Society—were in attendance at the all-day meeting. Following the support and enthusiasm of this initial meeting, the BRS has solidified into a robust organization with chapters developing at nearly 20 universities across the nation. The BRS held four successful debates in 2009, at Columbia University, Harvard University, George Washington University, and Texas A&M.
