Customer Reviews

The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association

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For too long, the AMA has been able to offer itself as "dedicated to the health of America," with no dissenting voice to be heard. But with this hard-hitting expose, Wolinsky and Brune show the hollowness of that claim. In meticulously cited chapter after chapter, they build up convincing evidence that the American Medical Association is dedicated foremost to the health and wealth of doctors. With examples of the AMA's tacit support of Big Tobacco in the 1960s and 70s, its unwavering opposition to Medicare in the 1960s, and its massive lobbying operations in Washington, among others, an inescapable conclusion is reached:

The AMA can be hazardous to America's health.

This is a critical and often hilarious look at a stodgy organization that I believe has outlived its usefulness, whatever that might have been. From a former head several decades ago who became a consultant for the tobacco industry, to the Wilks suit (aided by the Scientologists? ), the book chronicles the many missteps the AMA has made long before the Sunbeam debacle. The current AMA leadership would do well to read this, and see how the outside world views what was once known as "The Doctor's Union."