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The American Medical Association is a special-interest - lobby, not a patient ally

Posted: Oct 19th, 2019 - 10:21 am In Reply to: How does the AMA get away with claiming they - “represent physicians” when over

On Monday, the American Medical Association issued a tough condemnation of the Republican Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

As proposed, the AMA says, this legislation "violates" the medical precept that a physician should "first, do no harm".

At first glance, it's a very concerning statement.

After all, we look at the AMA and assume that doctors know what they are talking about when it comes to healthcare. They're the experts, right?

Right.

But the "right" needs to carry a big caveat here. Because the AMA is not a simple doctors' club. It's a lobbying group with specific, vested interests. Namely, the pursuit of maximized doctor earnings, interests, and protections under law.

It's very telling that so few media outlets have bothered to point this out. They simply see the AMA as a useful stickman with which to hit the healthcare repeal.

And it matters. Because the AMA's actual mission helps us to understand why it doesn't like this bill. As the AMA themselves admit, it's because the legislation proposes to limit medicaid spending. The AMA claims that these limits would afflict poor and ill citizens. But that's not really what they're concerned about. Ultimately, their opposition is about something much simpler: The size of their wallets.

The AMA knows that if Medicaid spending growth is restrained, doctors will obviously face the prospect of greater government action to reduce payments. And that will affect a doctor's take-home amount. The AMA has a clear imperative in preventing any reform efforts that might reduce physician earnings.

Still, there's a broader issue that demands our attention here.

As the Washington Post detailed in 2013, the AMA has a track record of putting itself before patients. For one, in its ludicrous power to set medical treatment price points. Here, the AMA repeatedly overestimates the costs of a treatment.

Why wouldn't they?

They are a special-interest group, not a servant of the patients in American hospitals.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with lobbying. It's legal and used by industries across society. My contention is that the AMA is not the holier-than-thou entity that it portrays itself to be.

Going forward, we should judge its rulings with far greater skepticism.

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