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 ow
well does the American Medical Association represent its members?
It's a question Michael
Catanzaro raised in National Review earlier this year. Now comes
new evidence that the leadership of the organization is out of touch
with doctors, in the form of a recent survey of 300 doctors who
belong to the AMA.
The AMA
dismissed the poll as propaganda from the HMO lobby (it was
conducted for the American Association of Health plans). It may
also be worth noting that the poll was done by a Republican polling
firm (Ayres, McHenry & Associates). But most of the questions
seem fairly worded, and the results plausible for anyone who's spent
much time with doctors.
Asked which
of four policies the AMA should make its "top legislative priority,"
a 39 percent plurality voted for a cap on damage awards in medical
malpractice cases. Only 17 percent answered "making HMOs and
other health plans subject to new lawsuits" — the centerpiece
of the "patient's bill of rights," which has been the
AMA's actual priority.
Another question
asked, "Would it be a good idea or a bad idea for doctors'
groups to form an alliance with trial lawyers — to pass laws
exposing health plans to more lawsuits — even if it meant putting
aside efforts to reform the medical malpractice system?" This
is, of course, what the AMA has done. But 74 percent of the sample
said it was a bad idea. And 91 percent of the sample thought that
the AMA "should be working vigorously to pass a patient protection
bill that includes medical liability reform for physicians."
In other findings,
50 percent of the AMA doctors said they had voted for George W.
Bush while only 24 percent said they had supported Al Gore. (The
rest didn't vote, voted for another candidate, or refused to answer.)
Is Bush's stand on the patient's bill of rights hurting him among
AMA doctors? According to the poll, he has a 64 percent approval
rating.
You can judge
the poll for yourself at www.aahp.org.
Correction
The July 20
Washington Bulletin mistakenly reported that Sens. Arlen Specter
and Tom Harkin favor federal funding of the creation of human embryos
for research purposes. In fact, they favor federal funding for 1)
research on stem cells taken from embryos and 2) the extraction
of the stem cells (which destroys the embryos). Specter's bill,
of which Harkin is a major co-sponsor, would allow federal funding
for research on stem cells taken from human embryos that were created
by private parties for research purposes. But the bill would bar
federal funding for the actual creation of the embryos. We regret
the error. Not as much as we regret the bill, but we regret the
error.
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