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A few weeks ago, it looked like the AMA might collaborate with the President in his effort to dismantle U.S. health care, presumably in the hope that groveling would prevent reimbursement cuts for its membership.
But the President was playing the AMA leadership for chumps. He plans to push through the “public option” and to force doctors to participate in the program. This caused an epiphany at the AMA:
As the health care debate heats up, the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.
It will be interesting to see if the AMA can influence the outcome of the “public option” debate. The organization once wielded considerable power inside the Beltway, but not so much these days.
One thing is certain: Collaborating with Obama won’t get the AMA anywhere. He’s going to doublecross the health care stakeholders whenever it is politically expedient.
June 18th, 2009 at 9:04 am
There is a very simple solution to healthcare crises: we need to strip AMA from power to regulate admittance to medical schools, which artificially creates the shortage of doctors and boosts their salaries. If demand for medical services is balanced by supply of doctors, then the price would automatically go down to affordable level and nobody would need a medical insurance. This is the only free market solution for this problem. What Obama is proposing would replace one monopoly by another – AMA, which has significant, but still limited lobbying power, by Government, which has almost unlimited power. This would be the worst form of monopoly: patients wouldn’t have a freedom to choose and doctors wouldn’t have a freedom to set the price.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Not only is this NOT the “only free market solution for this problem”, it’s not even part of a solution. Someone has to regulate medical school admissions, and their have to be certain criteria for admittance. You can’t just let any tom, dick and harry walk in off the street and claim “Hello everybody, I’m going to med school”. We already don’t have enough seats available now…the last thing we need to do is start allowing people who have no shot at passing the curriculum take a seat away from someone who can.
And in case you didn’t know it, there are plenty of health care workers who aren’t applying for medical school, and they contribute to the cost of health care too. Not everyone is a doctor.
There are plenty of free market solutions that would do wonders for the system…this isn’t one of them.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Just to add, I’m not pro or anti AMA…just pointing out your solution won’t solve anything.
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 am
Stripping the AMA of it’s ability to regulate med schools will help the problem. There are plenty of talented students for whom there is no spot in med a school. It won’t lower quality. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry couldn’t get into med school anyway, let alone pass licensing exams where the standard should stay the same.