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EditorialAMA On The Rebound?Michael J. Bernhardt, M.D., Editor |
| Last year I wrote a rather sarcastic editorial. Both of you out there
that read my editorials, and have suffered through them with some degree of consistency,
know that this is not, in fact, unusual. My editorial was on the demise and fall of the American Medical Association (AMA). My basic gist was
that the AMA has forgotten who their core constituency was, that the AMA was not looking
out for the best interests of America's physicians, and that the demographic curve shows
that by the year 2030 the AMA will be as much of a memory as Hillary's village and
socialized health care system. However, there are signs that under the current AMA
Executive Vice President and President, my predictions will be proven false. Although
still personally undecided on the issue of unionization, the fact that the AMA has voted
to support the formation of unions, and has decided to champion the concept of physicians
obtaining some degree of exclusion from antitrust laws is very encouraging. It sends a
signal to the real "America's Team" — the physicians of this country. It
signals to those of us in the trenches "We're back. We're interested." And we
are ready to weigh in. There are serious inequities in the political side of the health care arena, and no matter who is in power the physician is the odd person out. The Democrats traditionally champion the rights of the trial bar, while the Republicans tend to champion the cause of the managed care providers. It is my personal opinion that in the 15 years I have been in Jacksonville, the Florida Times Union has had a rather myopic anti-physician bias in their editorials regarding the health care delivery system, which enhances the negative perception of physicians by the lay public. Part of the reason we have been "iced out" of the playing field, is of course that when a problem arises, physicians gather, "circle their wagons", pull out their armaments and shoot each other. That is why we need organized representation. One doctor's opinion is politically irrelevant to all except themselves (this writer excluded, of course); 400,000 collective opinions, actually have some political clout. If the Democrats are successful in regaining the House, we will be looking at the reappearance of Pete Starke. Physicians will need all the help we can get, and hopefully the AMA will be at the forefront of protecting physicians' rights. Believe it or not, physicians are actually protected by the same constitution that the rest of our citizens are protected by. It is encouraging to see and appreciate the changes that seem to be occurring in the AMA. Keep it up. Jacksonville Medicine / July 1999 What's New
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