Attendees of the June 8, 2019 meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) were confronted by a rally outside the meeting organized by medical students and allies calling on the AMA to drop its opposition to single-payer healthcare.
Representatives from Students for a National Health Program (SNaHP) were joined by Medicare for All supporters from a variety of organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), National Nurses United (NNU), People’s Action, Public Citizen, the Center for Popular Democracy, The Jane Addams Senior Caucus and more.
In 2018, the AMA co-founded the Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future (PAHCF), a healthcare industry coalition of lobbying groups which opposes reforms such as Medicare for All, Medicare buy-in and public option plans, according to their website. Besides the AMA, which is the nation’s third largest lobbying organization, PAHCF includes lobbyists for the health insurance industry, insurance agents and brokers, and hospital corporations.
In reaction, the medical students introduced a resolution that forced the House of Delegates, which sets policy for the AMA, to a vote on their position on single-payer.
Although the AMA vote reaffirmed its opposition to single payer, the margin was extremely narrow – 53% to 47% (or 292 to 254).
Dr. Adam Gaffney, President of PNHP, shared the following statement:
“This past weekend, a group of medical students introduced a formal resolution requiring the American Medical Association to drop its decades-long opposition to single payer. Ultimately, AMA delegates voted against the resolution, but by a surprisingly thin margin of 53% to 47%, a remarkable shift for an organization that has been overwhelmingly opposed to single payer for generations.
This historic vote was no fluke. It was the result of months of organizing, mostly by medical students and young health professionals, joined by an increasingly diverse coalition of allies that support improved Medicare for All. This new generation of physician activists won’t accept a system that puts profits before patient care. And this generation won’t sit quietly while the AMA — which claims to represent the values of doctors — blocks the single-payer reform that a majority of physicians now support.
Bob Doherty, a senior vice president for government affairs and public policy at the American College of Physicians, suggested that the growing support for single-payer in the AMA may be associated with the fact that in recent years, younger, more diverse people are going into medicine.
Learn more . . .
Why we’re fighting the American Medical Association (The Guardian)
In order to protect their own economic interests, the “Partnership” is waging a well-funded campaign to turn elected officials away from single-payer….The campaign is merely the latest example of how the AMA uses the prestige of its white-coated members to push for market-based health reforms that maintain the status quo of our fractured health system: one in which some Americans have a lot, others have a little, and some are left with absolutely nothing.
Medical students and professionals have had enough.
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Protesters Rally, Disrupt Opening Session at AMA Meeting (MedPage Today)
Talisa Hardin of National Nurses United, a labor union for nurses, who criticized the AMA for its “aggressive” lobbying tactics. “The AMA is violating one of its most ethical principles, ‘Do No Harm,’ by being on the wrong side of history,” she said. “We want the AMA to publicly show its support for Medicare for All.”
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The nation’s most prominent doctors group almost dropped its opposition to Medicare-for-all (Vox)
The AMA House of Delegates has become younger and more diverse (especially many more women) over the years, reflecting the trend in who is going into medicine,” [Bob Doherty] told me. He also pointed out the rise of specialty medical societies, which tend to be more progressive, in the AMA ranks — which has undermined the long-held dominance of more conservative state medical associations.
“I also think physicians are frustrated with paperwork, preauthorizations, limited formularies, high-deductible plans, and narrow networks associated with private insurers,” Doherty added, “each with their own and conflicting rules.”
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