A Brief Treatise on the Influence of the American Medical Association on HealthCare Legislation in the United States of America

The American Medical Association was founded when organized healthcare in America began to first take shape. After the association became more politically active around 1900, the AMA, which advocates in the interests of its member doctors and patients, soon became an institution that would not only alter the course of American healthcare legislation for the next hundred years, but one that continues to affect government health care decisions today. Any efforts concerning healthcare reform have always been either supported or opposed by the AMA, whose political viewpoints and endorsement have varied throughout the years.

In pre-WWI America, the Progressive Movement marked an era of social, federalist reform where an individual’s welfare and betterment was seen as the government’s responsibility. In 1916, a bill that would create compulsory healthcare in the United States was proposed and gained major support from the AMA, which said it would be “the inauguration of a great movement which ought to result in an improvement in the health of the industrial population and improve the conditions for medical service among wage earners.” The AMA’s president, Rupert Blue, described it as “the next step in social legislation.” However, after such socialist ideals were branded as “Prussian” and “Made in Germany” in 1917, the bill didn’t pass. However, the American Medical Association’s influence over the healthcare corridors of power has increased since.

By the Roaring ‘20s, the AMA, perhaps realizing the greater monetary potential in private rather than public healthcare, was totally opposed to a mandatory, government-run system. Thus, health reform was not an issue until the Great Depression, when FDR planned on including national healthcare in the Social Security Act of 1935, but stopped due to pressure from the AMA.

After WWII, President Truman (“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”) saw the corruption of the American health system, where money was the priority and not patients, and where the AMA ran an expensive campaign opposing a government-run health system. This campaign succeeded in thwarting Truman’s efforts with Legislature and keeping the President on the defensive.

Under Eisenhower, the AMA stopped the Kings-Anderson Bill, which was the precursor to Medicare, from passing.

Fortunately, LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that, among other things, led to the desegregation of hospitals. However, the AMA originally opposed to the act and ignored or even obstructed the civil rights agenda.

Afterwards, the president was only able to pass the Social Security Act of 1965, which included Medicare and Medicaid, due to an extremely liberal House and Senate that the AMA could not defeat.

Recently, the American Medical Association backed President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which probably contributed to legislators passing it in March 2010. Although the AMA currently only represents around ⅕ of America’s doctors, the association spent $15,800,000 on lobbying in 2010.  Even though its membership has diminished, the AMA still remains a powerful force in shaping politics and healthcare, with the drive and the funding to achieve their goals.


Resources:

Edwin E. Witte, "Compulsory Health Insurance" (1973) in Robert J. Lampman (editor), Social Security Perspectives: Essays by Edwin E. Witte (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1962), 316-317. Print.

Soon or Later On: Franklin D. Roosevelt and National Health Insurance, 1933-1945
Journal article by Jaap Kooijman; Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999

Derthick, Policymaking for Social Security, p.96

"Lobbying Stats." American Medical Assn. OpenSecrets.org, 2010. Web. Dec. 2010. <http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000068&lname=American Medical Assn>.

"Healthcare Timeline." Healthcare Crisis. Public Broadcasting Station. Web. Dec. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm>.

Kooijman, Jaap. ...And the Pursuit of National Health: The Incremental Strategy Toward National Health Insurance in the United States of America. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999. Print.