 
June 24, 1999
Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, issued the following statement in response to the AMA’s vote to form a labor organization: "The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) opposes the AMA’s decision to organize doctors into an AMA union. This move is not about protecting patients, but about furthering the AMA’s political power and stranglehold on medicine, and can only result in a ‘blot’ on the professionalism of physicians and decreased trust of doctors. "By forming a union to organize against managed care and insurance companies, the AMA has surrendered to the premise that doctors are merely the "workers" fighting against big bad "management" -- the managed care and insurance companies who sign their contracts and issue their checks. But aren’t doctors supposed to be working for their patients? "If the AMA were really interested in protecting patients, instead of negotiating sweeter deals for doctors, it would tell its members to refuse to sign these unethical contracts that leave patients out in the cold. "And if our questions about the ethics of a union weren’t enough, we’re also suspicious about the crass commercial incentives. The AMA Board of Trustees admits ‘The profit potential for an AMA bargaining unit is also clear,’ and goes on to unashamedly projects annual profits of $2.5 million. That’s money extracted from doctors that could, for example, go into free patient care, instead of the AMA lobbying coffers. "If it walks like a union and quacks like a union, you can be sure it will look like any other big labor organization with a mission of protecting itself and its leadership. Patients can only lose." The AAPS, a voice for private physicians since 1943, is dedicated to protecting the sanctity of the patient- physician relationship from all third-party intrusion.
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