First, doctors are conservative and do not want to harm fragile, sick patients, he said.

The basic problem, the report said, is the absence of safety systems that catch doctors' mistakes before they harm patients.

By contrast, when a drug harms patients, there is no independent agency to find out what went wrong.

It covers all Americans and holds health plans accountable for actions that harm patients.

Doctors said the boycott would not harm patients and could eventually lead to improvements in the quality of care.

"But worse, he has given very powerful help to an industry whose product is harming health workers and patients."

Forcing them to choose between good care and their jobs will harm patients.

In 25 years of use, it has harmed very few patients, and then only under rare circumstances.

Those policies, the smaller companies contend, also harmed patients by making it harder for innovative products to make their way into hospitals.

Those safeguards are meant to shield doctors from making decisions that might harm patients or drive up health care costs.