Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Scherz: Has the American Medical Association Lost Its Way?

Dr. Hal Scherz has a new OpEd in the 7/18/2011 Fox News, "After Supporting ObamaCare, Has the American Medical Association Lost Its Way?"

The short answer is, unfortunately, "yes".

In his piece, Dr. Scherz covers some facts not well-known to many in the general public, including:

(1) The AMA does not speak for anything close to a majority of physicians. Rather, less than 17% of practicing physicians are AMA members.

(2) The AMA's source of revenues (including their government-granted monopoly on medical coding) creates a deep conflict-of-interest when the support government policies such as ObamaCare.

(3) The current CEO of the AMA has close links to the Obama administration.

These are some reasons that many doctors like myself refuse to join the AMA.

Instead, I hope doctors and patients take a closer look at other medical organizations like Docs4PatientCare.org that can speak out for genuine health care reforms.