If patients are lucky enough to have coverage at all, they have to seriously wonder these days if their health plan is allowing them to receive the best treatment available. The AMA vote says physicians have had it with the way they and their patients are being treated and that they believe the future will be worse. In doing so, the AMA has set a standard by which it and other physician labor organizations will and should be judged. It would be difficult to overstate the symbolic significance of the vote, but any discussion of the issue requires an accompanying reality check on its immediate practical impact. More than 40,000 physicians are already in unions.
Employed doctors face real problems on the job.
Under the law, a labor organization will help them by requiring good-faith negotiations on the part of employers and safety from retaliation. The AMA's group, which will operate as an affiliate of the Association, is gearing up to serve physicians who need and seek its help. Because these physicians are self-employed they cannot now negotiate collectively. Relief in that vital area was the focus of proceedings in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, held coincidentally on the day before the AMA house vote. The Campbell bill would reform federal antitrust law to allow self-employed physicians to join together to negotiate with health plans.