American Medical Association

The American Medical Association (AMA), founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of physicians—both MDs and DOs—and medical students in the United States.
The AMA's stated mission is to promote the art and science of medicine for the betterment of the public health, to advance the interests of physicians and their patients, to promote public health, to lobby for legislation favorable to physicians and patients, and to raise money for medical education. The Association also publishes the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), which has the largest circulation of any weekly medical journal in the world. The AMA also publishes a list of Physician Specialty Codes which are the standard method in the U.S. for identifying physician and practice specialties.
The AMA has one of the largest political lobbying budgets of any organization in the United States. Its political positions throughout its history have often been controversial. In the 1930s, the AMA attempted to prohibit its members from working for the then-primitive health maintenance organizations that had sprung up during the Great Depression, which violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and resulted in a conviction ultimately affirmed by the US Supreme Court. The AMA's vehement campaign against Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s included the Operation Coffee Cup supported by Ronald Reagan. Since the enactment of Medicare, the AMA reversed its position and now opposes any "cut to Medicare funding or shift [of] increased costs to beneficiaries at the expense of the quality or accessibility of care". However, the AMA remains opposed to any single-payer health care plan that might enact a National Health Service in the United States, such as the United States National Health Care Act. In the 1990s, the organization was part of the coalition that defeated the health care reform advanced by Hillary and Bill Clinton.
The AMA has also supported changes in medical malpractice law to limit damage awards, which, it contends, makes it difficult for patients to find appropriate medical care. In many states, high risk specialists have moved to other states that have enacted reform. For example, in 2004, all neurosurgeons had relocated out of the entire southern half of Illinois. The main legislative emphasis in multiple states has been to effect caps on the amount that patients can receive for pain and suffering. These costs for pain and suffering are only those that exceed the actual costs of healthcare and lost income. At the same time however, states without caps also experienced similar results; suggesting that other market factors may have contributed to the decreases. Some economic studies have found that caps have historically had an uncertain effect on premium rates. Nevertheless, the AMA believes the caps may alleviate what is often perceived as an excessively litigious environment for many doctors. A recent report by the AMA found that in a 12 month period, five percent of physicians had claims filed against them. 
The AMA sponsors the Specialty Society Relative Value Scale Update Committee which is an influential group of 29 physicians, mostly specialists, who help determine the value of different physician's labor in Medicare prices.
Collections of the association's papers dating from the late 1860s to the late 1960s are held at the National Library of Medicine.
==Current Events==
===Technology===
Glory hosanna unto the highest. Knowledge in the form of the Galan Database is raining down technological manna. Bio bed sensors, limb and organ regeneration, in vitro cloning of body parts and the list goes on. Few voices are raised in protest of this technological boon. Mainly Big Pharma that can't make any real money off the public domain inventions. New treatments and cures roll out monthly.
===Magic===
Magic is definitely turning a few heads around the AMA. The idea that injury and disease can alleviated with a few words raised highly skeptical eyebrows, until they saw results. There is an interest in the employ of magic to relieve suffering.
What isn't getting so easy a pass is the Greyhawke tradition of 
Healers. Less for how they practice medicine as on whom they practice it, that is everyone, including animals. There is a long tradition written into law that Human doctors don't doctor animals and Veterinarians do not doctor people. That division never happened in the Healer schools of Greyhawke. The Greyhawken Healer has so many different kinds of patient that adding the less intelligent is not seen as a large division. There is also the case of Greyhawken horses that can be people, sometimes. The case of sentience is not cut and dried. 
Discussion continues. Julian is a difficult advocate to argue around. And he is more than willing to ditch the AMA to see that Healing prospers.
===Aliens===
Aliens are also tossing traditional medical divisions in the dust bin. Ane for example, clearly people, but an informed cow doctor is better equipped to deal with their health needs. Vulcans and Orions have very different blood chemistry and Human treatments can be fatal. Medicine is divided by worlds, entire biospheres of similar creatures.
The term Xeno-medicine has been borrowed from the ADF. In effect Healers but without the magic. That nice Greek prefix makes it go down easier.
===And the Dead Elephant in the Room===
The American Health Service. It finally caught up with them, Single payer is the law of the land. The old broke and inaccessible hearth insurance system is a smoldering hole in the ground and beyond resuscitation.
On the good side the entire thing is ruled to be Doctor driven, not dependent on bureaucrats to define treatment. On the bad side, what something costs is no longer driven by what insurance will pay, costs are way down. On the gripping hand, everyone gets healthcare, not just those than can afford it.
Category:Groups
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Category:Medicine