What Is Social Medicine? A Chilean Experience of Medicine and Politics

During the early twentieth century Chilean doctors took a different approach to the relation between medicine and politics; they not only publicly claimed the need for a Ministry of Health, but also got involved in legislation. Doctors in Chile took the medical expertise they had learned while practicing their trade and moved into the congress, helping to promote and create new laws that would socialize medicine. Through this paper, I will explain why the Chilean case allowed doctors direct involvement into politics, how their medical experience influenced their work in politics, and how party politics were not what motivated these men to try to improve the welfare of the Chilean population.