Maybe the rest of practicing physicians think Healthline.com and WebMD are full of crap.
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Found this article from someone who is clearly not a fan of the AMA:
Don’t Believe AMA’s Hype, Membership Still Declining
— Group focuses more on its own finances than physicians’ real concerns, says Kevin Campbell, MD
by Kevin Campbell MD June 19, 2019
The article focused on AMA membership, but it had a number of snippet gems...
This is what the AMA has to say about its membership numbers:
They write that membership has been growing steadily over the last 3 years but then cleverly bury the part about how revenue on membership has decreased every year (at least for the last five years) because the “new members” are actually mostly group practices, students, residents, fellows in training, retirees, and so called “sponsored memberships” which have much lower average membership rates. Retirees, students, and residents are a large proportion of this so-called growth — not practicing MDs.
According to publicly available records, it appears that the AMA has also spent more money each year on marketing efforts focused on member retention.
So let’s break it down further and take a closer look at the AMA’s membership numbers ... — there are 1,341,682 physicians/medical students/residents/Fellows in the U.S. today — there are 250,253 AMA members. According to the AMA’s own numbers, 22.5% of AMA members are students and 24.7% are residents (this number in 2016 was 235,000 or 1/6th of America’s physicians).
They are an organization that relies on government payments for its revenue — which line the pockets of its executives. Membership is declining and the Majority of U.S. physicians DO NOT believe that the AMA represents their interests — or the interests of their patients.
Let’s call a spade a spade — the AMA is not the association for the U.S. doctor — it’s a money-making machine from the few who lead the way for the AMA in Washington D.C.
Beyond the membership spin — What is it about the AMA that America’s Doctors really detest?
— The AMA touts itself as speaking for all of us — but rarely listens to any of us — they work to fill their own pockets with dollars from big pharma and government
— The AMA tends to have a narrow minded political view and works to stifle any dissenting opinions (in an effort to continue to align with the government agencies that line the pockets of AMA executives with taxpayer money)
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/campbells-scoop/80583
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:
First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.
Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.
The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.
The AMA succumbed to the Iron Law many years ago.