The Doctors Reform Society has now passed the 25 year mark. We produced a special issue of New Doctor to celebrate our 20th birthday, however, this one will be a little quieter and less self-indulgent. But it does provide an opportunity to review those 25 years and our reasons for continuing.

In this issue we re-visit the philosophical bases for the formation of the DRS: the need to support the introduction of universal health insurance and Medibank. We remind ourselves of the messages from the past which remain relevant today and continue to underpin our motivation.

We are not only looking back. There are many important topics to keep on the agenda if we are not to lose what was so hard to achieve, however there are also new and continuing problems to be considered.

As Gwen Gray reminds us in this issue, the present government policy is to promote private health insurance at great cost to the public sector and allow Medicare to run down. We congratulate Professor Leeder and the Public Health Association for making Medicare a priority issue. We look at some of the aftermath of a modern interpretation of war, and, at home, a positive contribution towards encouragement of education among Aboriginal children in a Sydney suburb. We also publish the DRS submissions to the Senate Inquiry into Public Hospital Funding which was the result of much membership consultation.

We look forward to the new century with hope and determination to continue the next twenty-five years with more of the same only better.

With best wishes to all our readers for the Year 2000

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