American Medical Association Essay, Research Paper

American Medical Association One of the main topics on everybody’s mind as the new millennium is coming up is their personal health. To make sure that there are sources for people to use to accomplish good health, the American Medical Association was created to promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health. Their main objective is to advance the quality of medical education, science, and medical practice in America. To do this, the AMA writes several letters to congress proposing new ideas and policies. While organized medicine will face many issues in congress, AMA will aggressively pursue congressional action on some of medicine’s key issues including protecting the confidentiality of medical records, seeking solutions to end-of-life care, and enacting medical liability reforms. They have shown this by their 1999 legislative agenda which will be aggressively working on issues such as medical care reform, antitrust relief, medical fraud and abuse, regulatory relief, health insurance reform, Medicare reform, new knowledge for clinical practice, and public health initiatives. All of these concerns show that AMA is trying to protect the public from being harmed by politics in medicine. For example, if you need surgery in order to live, but physicians are refusing to give the operation because you don’t have good enough credit or you can’t afford the operation, the AMA is working on reforms and policies to ensure that you receive the care that you need in order to live regardless of monetary problems. Though many people feel that Medicare and other sources for money when dealing with medicine are not serving their purpose as well as they should, they are not thinking about how hard it would be if the AMA had not have gotten it this far. Though they have worked hard to get Medicare where it is today they are still trying to improve it. Recently, to improve medical reform they sent forth ideas, and so far congressional leaders are awaiting the report of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare that is due out in March of 1999. Organized medicine will work with Congress to enact reforms that will assure the long-term solvency of the program. In addition, AMA will seek a new physician payment update formula that will better reflect the true costs of providing medical services. Also, many people have dealt with insurance companies, to improve the system the AMA will seek changes in the federal tax code that will facilitate the transition from an employer-based to an individually-owned insurance system. Such a change would empower patients, preserve the patient-physician relationship and facilitate the development of new strategies to extend coverage to the uninsured. Both of these interests were brought forth to ensure the well being of the public’s monetary status. Medicine is becoming very expensive these days and though patients are benefiting a great deal from the advancement of technology, their pockets are being thinned out. The AMA also deals with medical research and sometimes their wish to conduct official research is not granted, for example, their wish to have authority over tobacco was opposed by congress and was given to the Food and Drug Administration. Taking this into consideration, members of the AMA write several letters to congress and conduct research to supply evidence for their proposed policies. In conclusion, I feel that the American Medical Association is benefiting all of us in ensuring that our health can be protected. So far the AMA has done a good job thus far in creating policies and getting them passed by congress.