I'm from the AMA and I'm here to help...

What is needed is push back against managed care, against government regulations and inadequate fee schedules, and against a malpractice system that harms the many for the good of the few. Physicians take an oath to care for the sick, not to micromanage paperwork. The American Medical Association is the largest voice of physicians and the one organization that could make a difference. It has the power to reframe the debate on health care. Instead, it is focusing on universal health insurance and policing its ranks for "quality". The AMA has lost membership over the years precisely because it has ceded the high ground to the government, managed care and malpractice attorneys. It has ceded the framing of health issues to these forces, placing physicians unfairly and wrongly on the defensive. These other forces have increased the cost of health care, blaming us physicians for it. Health insurance is largely unaffordable, but not because physicians are being overpaid, nor because pharma companies are soaking the ill.

The AMA needs to take the offensive. Remember, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.