Transcript:
Hello and Welcome. I'm Dr. George Lundberg and this is At Large at 番茄社区.
I am trying to figure out why so many American physicians say that they hate the American Medical Association and act out their feeling by not being a member.
I've been a member of the AMA since 1968 and also a member of my county, state, and specialty societies most of that time. I consider it my responsibility to support my profession by being a member of my professional associations.
But the AMA's percentage of U.S. MDs who are members is at an all-time low and has dropped every recent year.
Are the AMA haters unhappy because the AMA successfully fought off national health insurance in 1948, unsuccessfully opposed Medicare in 1966, or successfully supported the Affordable Care Act of 2010?
Are they upset because the AMA collaborated with politicians from tobacco growing states to successfully block anti-tobacco legislation for decades as a trade-off for Congress going easy on physicians, or because the AMA participated actively in successful anti-tobacco efforts in the 1980s and '90s?
Are they angry because physician average income rose from three times to only seven times that of average U.S. workers after enactment of Medicare and then the corporatization of medicine, but rose unevenly by specialty?
Perhaps many physicians believe that an effective AMA should have been able to prevent or solve the malpractice problem after all these years.
Could it be that many physicians blame the AMA for longstanding disparities of representation by age, gender, and ethnicity in the medical workforce, or blame it for promoting equality of access for all qualified persons to medical school and for patients?
Maybe some AMA haters are angry that the AMA was in cahoots with Big Pharma for decades so as to gain advertising mega-dollars for their journals and newspaper, or angry because those dollars were not enough to keep annual dues low.
Maybe they reject the ethic that physicians should care for all in need, regardless of their ability to pay, an AMA position since 1846.
Who knows? I don't. It could be as simple as that every unhappy person needs a whipping boy, and the AMA has been an attractive target for so long.
But that leads to the next logical question. Why are so many American physicians so angry?
In my best world, ALL U.S. physicians would automatically become AMA members after graduation from medical school and upon achieving a professional certificate to practice medicine in all U.S. states.
That's my opinion. I'm Dr. George Lundberg and this is At Large at 番茄社区.