Physicians, heal thyselves

The American Medical Association (AMA) considers itself the voice of American doctors, and it used that bully pulpit in its recent fight against the American Health Care Act (also called the Obamacare replacement bill). The New York Times cited it as “a powerful lobbying group representing the nation’s doctors”; to The Huffington Post, it was simply “the doctors.” There’s just one problem with this, a truth that the AMA doesn’t like to discuss: Most doctors aren’t members.

The group won’t say how many of its members are still in medical school, but the benefits that come with an all-but-free student membership—everything from anatomy flashcards to a UPS shipping discount—mean that thousands of students sign up each year. Most don’t stick around when they graduate: A 2011 article in the CMA Journal estimated that only about 15 percent of practicing U.S. doctors are members.

The article cited “bowling alone,” or declining interest in joining organizations, as a potential reason. Specialty organizations often attract what interest remains—roughly half of surgeons, for example, belong to the American College of Surgeons. One other possibility the author mentions: the AMA’s politics.

The AMA famously supported Obamacare, losing thousands of members in the process, and the resolutions it adopted at its 2016 annual meeting read like the hard left’s wish list: One affirmed the “medical necessity” of sex-change operations, while another fretted that religiously affiliated hospitals will make abortions harder to find. Still others pushed gun control, jail alternative programs, gentler language by police officers, and changes to school sex-ed curricula. A resolution opposing assisted suicide got a thumbs-down, whereas a resolution for the euphemistic “aid-in-dying” will get a closer look by a committee.

Most resolutions were not political: Between assorted pleas for less bureaucracy and simplified paperwork, the AMA also advocated sunscreen use, safe ways to dispose of unwanted prescription drugs, and steps to prevent dosing errors in hospitals. But where politics enter the picture, the direction is almost always a hard left.

The same story—only more so—shows up with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In a 2007 “ethics opinion,” ACOG stated that doctors and nurses should not be allowed to cite conscience as a reason they would not participate in abortions. ACOG stated in the same article that “claims of conscience are not always genuine” and may represent “an agenda based on religious beliefs.” This isn’t academic: As the pre-eminent OB-GYN association, ACOG influences national policy in its field.

Alternatives exist, but they are small: The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons counts only about 5,000 members. The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists claims 2,500 members, but not all are doctors. The American College of Pediatricians—founded by a past president of the 60,000-strong American Academy of Pediatrics in protest of AAP’s stance on adoption in same-sex “marriages”—has about 500. (That stand earned ACP the predictable stamp of “hate group” from the Southern Poverty Law Center.)

It wasn’t always this way: The AMA counted some 75 percent of American doctors as members in the 1950s. Not coincidentally, its focus was on issues of concern to all doctors: opposing the primitive HMOs of the time and leading resistance to the proposals that ultimately became Medicare. If the AMA would like to reverse its steady membership decline and truly speak for American doctors once more, one prescription stands out: remembering its roots.