About the AMA and what your doctor really thinks

[dynasaw]

"The AMA is an organization that most Americans believe represents all doctors, when, in fact, at a stretch, we're talking about 15%. Even that number is fluffed by including retired doctor members who don't see patients, plus medical students and residents - whose "membership" is almost a freebie foisted on them. When you're a medical student/resident, $20 gets you a year's worth of the journal JAMA delivered to your home, and - oh yeah - AMA membership too. Membership in the AMA has been steadily dwindling, and rumor has it it's mostly surgeons. Why does no one have a more definite number about who belongs to the AMA? Despite the fact that the AMA claims to own, and then sells the names and addresses of every doctor in America (despite overwhelming physician disapproval) - to the tune of $50 million dollars a year, with sales predominantly to drug companies so Big Pharma can track individual prescribing patterns - the AMA are remarkably secretive about exactly who is a member. Saying the AMA represents all doctors is like saying PETA represents all pet owners.

Keep in mind that, in contrast to the boo-er at the AMA speech, 63% of polled physicians favor healthcare reform.

Besides being in a minority group of physicians, the Obama-booer was likely also a surgeon or procedure-oriented subspecialist, because the topic that prompted the moment-of-boo was malpractice awards. Or rather, Obama's reluctance to put caps on malpractice awards as part of overhauling our healthcare system. Statistically, surgeons and proceduralists are the ones most likely to be sued.

In fact, the AMA is widely credited with being responsible for our tremendous mess of medical billing (and, therefore, massive overbilling) in the current healthcare system - their procedure-heavy representatives were THE major players in drafting reimbursement codes. You know - the codes that won't pay for your doctor to spend time actually talking to you, but will pay big bucks for a tube in your orifice?"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gurley/detail?entry_id=41763

[Warpy]

1. I have 3 docs

Two are specialists and one is a surgeon who got sick of the HMO rat race and opened up a storefront GP practice. All have said that we need single payer.

The AMA is a lobbying organization that no longer represents the rank and file out there. In fact, they claim only about 30% of practicing physicians as members these days, although they claim a much higher percentage of medical students, interns and residents.

The AMA has never been our friend. Now it's turning out to be the enemy of most docs, too.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. Good find!

"Want to know what your average doctor really thinks? Check out the American College of Physicians, your local (and state) medical societies, each of the specialty organizations, and Physicians for a National Healthcare Program. You might be surprised how different it is from what you see in the news - and how much your personal physician is interested in advocating for healthcare reform."

Links to those organizations are posted within the article. A little research should prove revealing.