Doctors vs. the AMA

The American Medical Association (AMA) claims that its mission is to "unite physicians" in order to "promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health." It's a lobbying group for doctors that claims to represent their interests on public policy and other matters. 

But according to a new survey of physicians by Jackson & Coker, a majority of doctors aren't buying what the AMA is selling: Just 11 percent agree that the AMA represents their views; 77 percent disagree. One of the biggest areas of disagreement? Last year's health care overhaul. The AMA supported its passage, but now 70 percent of physicians report that they do not agree with the AMA's position on the health law.

Full survey results, via Politico Pulse. Read Reason's Shikha Dalmia on the evil-mongering of the AMA. 

Comments

[PIRS]

"Just 11 percent agree that the AMA represents their views; 77 percent disagree."

Part of this [though certainly not all] may be due to the fact that not all Physicians in the United States are MDs. Many are DOs. It is the AOA, not the AMA that claims to represent them.

http://www.osteopathic.org

[LD]

I think there are more DOs that are members of the AMA than the osteopathic association. Most DO schools have AMA clubs. Also, the AMA assumes it represents both DO and MD. All physicians.

[Contrarian P]

No, it's that most MDs think the AMA is garbage. Very few of us belong to it anymore. The last hard figures I saw had about thirty percent of us as AMA members, and the number has been dropping since then, especially after the passage of Obamacare.

[marlok]

I think it's more like 15%. And that's including medical students who get almost free membership for their years in med school.

[GSL]

I used to work for a family practitioner who described the AMA as the "income preservation arm of the specialists' medical societies."

[Pro Libertate]

If the AMA is as screwed up as the ABA, I say ban it as a terrorist organization.

[American Medical Association]

The extremely low response rate and the type of survey conducted make it difficult to claim this is representative of all physicians. The AMA recognizes that physicians' attitudes around health system reform are diverse and we are leading the charge during the implementation of the health reform law to advocate for policies that help physicians and patients thrive as we keep moving medicine forward together. Physicians in our nation face a variety of challenges and opportunities - they hold a wide range of views that reflect the diversity of the profession and are not easily summarized from the small group who chose to respond to this survey.

[johnl]

If the only people who want to respond to a survey are the ones who don't like you, you have a problem.

[tarran]

If you recognize that physicians' views were diverse, why didn't you rent seekers take a position supporting a bill that was convoluted and whose contents kept being altered secretively? You jumped in their and supported it, because the AMA is all about stuffing their gob at the public trough, and you weren't going to sit this one out, were you?

From your inception, you guys have been all about screwing the consumer, including getting licensing boards to shut down medical schools, your successful campaign to outlaw lodge practice and even, disgustingly, limiting the number of hospitals beds that hospitals are allowed to offer on the market.

You guys violate everything Hippocrates stood for. Your political actions have led to countless deaths, and much needless suffering by people who had to wait for treatment or couldn't afford it because of the supply restrictions you created.

So, mr AMA publicist, I have one thing to say to you.

Why don't you get something hard and sharp, and fuck yourself with it.

Go peddle your bullshit in the comments section of the CNN blogs; that's where the gullible people who will buy your BS reside.

[tarran]

s/didn't/did in the first paragraph.

Damn, when I'm in full rant mode, I need an outside editor

[Scott66]

+1 except for the n't

[JD]

Speculation is that the AMA was promised a long-term "doc fix" to Medicare (something that was left out of the bill due to cost) somewhere down the line in exchange for supporting the PPACA at that time.

Of course, that hasn't materialized because of the costs and increasing public awareness of how fucked the government's financial situation is.

[rst]

More than speculation, it was a full-on bribe:

http://thehill.com/homenews/se.....ocs-a-deal

[johnl]

Great Tarran. And patients and guardians also have diverse views. Which is why informed people are offended at the AMA's flagrant effort to amputate our paychecks without consent or anesthesia.

[heller]

Can you hand me some makeup?

I like to look pretty while I'm being fucked.

[Episiarch]

Why don't you at least go across and the street and get some condoms? Because we should at least be safe if you're going to fuck me.

[DBN]

The extremely low response rate and the type of survey conducted make it difficult to claim this is representative of all physicians.

Very true. But as a pathologist, I am not a member of the AMA, nor do I know of another pathologist who is - given, I may know some who are members and I am just not aware of it. The CAP and USCAP are our main organizations.

[JMW]

The AMA has a gmail account?

Talk about cheap.

[johnl]

Physicians are notorious computer destroyers. It's safer that they use gmail than set up a mail server.

[Anonymous Coward]

Meaningless bullshit.

You could have just said "I think the sample size of this survey was too narrow" and saved me 20 seconds reading that nonsense someone inexplicably pays you to write.

[Res Publica Americana]

He gets paid by the syllable. Give the unprincipled dipstick a break, will ya?

[Colonel_Angus]

Fuck off, slaver.

[sevo]

"The extremely low response rate and the type of survey conducted make it difficult to claim this is representative of all physicians."

What is the deviation from typical response rates?

[Res Publica Americana]

One of my neighbors is a neurologist. He thinks the AMA is, and I quote, "a fucking joke in every way I can think of".

Nah, fuck all the evidence and my neighbor. I'll trust the AMA public relations guy, the one with the colossal state-manufactured cock up his ass.

[tarran]

Who are you going to believe, Res Publica, the AMA's press releases, or your lying eyes? 😉

[Res Publica Americana]

It's more that you guys hate black people and grannies and want cats and dogs to live together, feeding on the flesh of newborn children while the roads deteriorate, than my lying eyes.

Libertarians ain't got nothin' on the righteous and benevolent AMA!

[Griffin3]

As of 2009, only 29% of doctors were members of the AMA, and the number has dropped slightly since then. Like my wife, most doctors are voting with their pocketbooks: why pay dues to an organization that helps every regulator that tries to add another layer of crap to your job?

[Colonel_Angus]

Never trust any lobbying group that claims to represent your profession.

[ranting ranter]

It's like a little microcosm for representative democracy.

[JoshEpi]

The AMA represents academic physicians and is staffed by academic physicians. They lean further left than the average physician. The AMA is a fantastic academic resource and supports great research. It is a poor advocate for physician interests. And yes, I feel fine allowing the groups that freely associate to advocate for our own interests.

[frankania]

Here in Mexico, you can go to a "clinic" doctor for as low as $1.60 to about $22. A specialist cost up to $44. Most medicine is cheap and needs no prescription.
And this is NOT govt programs: this is Private enterprise at work.

Almoat nobody has insurance here because you don't need it!