Government Crackdown on Dissenting Doctors?

Thank you, Dr. Hal Scherz for your recent opinion article in the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Scherz, a pediatric urological surgeon from Atlanta, exposes the fraud that the American Medical Association (AMA) somehow represents the views of American doctors. They clearly do not, especially in their recent cave in on Obamacare. Moreover, the AMA is not particularly interested in representing physicians and surgeons. Their real purpose is to consolidate power in their corner of the universe. Or, as Dr. Scherz points out "to protect a monopoly that the federal government has created for it—a medical coding system administered by the AMA that every health-care professional and hospital must use if they wish to get paid for the services they provide...That makes the AMA less an association looking out for doctors and more a special-interest group beholden to Congress and the White House."

Now, it appears that the AMA has received marching orders from the White House and powerful Democrats in Congress to silence opposing voices in the medical profession. This is evidenced by their recent statement attempting to intimidate doctors who inform their patients on how Obamacare might negatively impact their ability to deliver quality care. If the Obama administration and the AMA move beyond their current posturing and decide to discipline those who wander off the reservation they will have a great many doctors to deal with. Indeed, there are many more doctors who oppose Obamacare than belong to the AMA.

While these tactics remain worrisome and distasteful, I remain optimistic that this may be the event that triggers the ultimate demise of the AMA. Americans like their healthcare, and are smart enough to see what's going on in Washington. Moreover, other organizations such as Docs4PatinetCare are rising up in opposition to the AMA and government controlled healthcare, and they actually have the advantage of representing their members.