Does the AMA Still Matter?

As the field of health care changes, so do its most staid institutions. Since its reorganization in 1900, the American Medical Association (AMA) served as a body of powerful political influence during the 20th century. But as Revere of Effect Measure and Joseph of The Corpus Callosum explain, membership in the AMA began declining with the advent of Medicare and corporate health care--its pull with legislators became less relevant to practicing physicians. Now, the AMA has released a statement of opposition to the public health care option in President Obama's health care reform plan, leading bloggers to question whether the organization itself will soon become obsolete. As Revere states, "We are rapidly moving into a new era of medical practice."

• Revolutionary medicine on Effect Measure
• AMA Slides Into Irrelevancy on Corpus Callosum
• Serious Mandate for National Health on Corpus Callosum