Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dissident Doctors Challenging the AMA

Matt Latimer profiles a group of dissident doctors in his article, "What MSM Won't Tell You: Doctors Are Challenging Government Health Care-and the AMA".

I don't know much about the group Docs4PatientCare.org. But they seem to raising the right issues and asking the right questions. Many of their proposed reforms move us at least partially in the proper direction of a free market.

(I do have questions about their idea of "high risk pools" for patients with pre-existing conditions. If some patients are truly uninsurable, they may need to rely on private charity. The last thing we should do is create yet another government entitlement program. The D4PC statement is vague on whether private parties or the government would ultimately pay for these patients' insurance and/or care. I fully support the former, but would be opposed to the latter.)

One point they raise which bears repeating:
The AMA does NOT represent the majority of 'practicing" US physicians. Only 17% of US physicians belong to the AMA and most of these members are administrators, practice in academic medicine, retired or residents and students. Therefore, the AMA's endorsement of this legislation is meaningless and irrelevant.
Hence, to the extent that D4PC provides doctors who disagree with the AMA endorsement of ObamaCare with a vehicle to express their views and promote free-market reforms, I applaud their work!