AMA Needs to Get Back To Their Mission Statement
I used to write checks to the AMA on behalf of my wife. I used to tell her that having lobbied politicians in the past it was important to put your money where your mouth was by supporting an organization that advocates on your behalf.
But no longer.
The Wife left the AMA when it went over to the Dark Side and supported Obamacare. Now it’s urging the repeal of “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell.”
Here’s the deal: I support the repeal myself. In fact barring gays from the military makes no sense considering the role they have played in military history. “This is Sparta!” Yes, and there was also sodomy! The British Navy? “The only traditions in the navy, ” Churchill remarked, “Are rum, sodomy, and the lash.” The great samurai warriors that flew the Chrysanthemum flag of the Emperor hundreds of years ago would be flying the rainbow flag today.
But the AMA’s mission should be to represent doctors and through them their patients. Doctors pay $420 a year for this representation.
Right now doctors are worrying over pending Medicare/Medicaid cuts that are due to take effect on January 1, 2010. Reimbursements will go down across the board by 20%, and for some procedures like stress tests, as much as 45%. Physicians are already refusing new Medicare patients.
But instead of pushing Congress to rescind the cuts, the AMA is lobbying for other causes that have little to do with medicine.
The organization has become a disgrace and lost it’s bearings. $420 a year is a lot even to a doctor, and could be better used by other organizations that can take up the fight that the AMA has run away from.
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