I’m reading John Zogby’s new book The Way We’ll Be. Fascinating stuff about the future, especially in this time of so much uncertainty, economic and otherwise. It got me thinking about a conversation I had with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Looking into the future, where will the pediatrics profession go and what are the consequences for the AAP?
When we talk about healthcare these days, it is mostly about cost, reform that will help the uninsured and the underinsured, and in general make the world’s highest quality healthcare more affordable for everyone. But what about the medical profession itself and the behemoth that is the American Medical Association?
Sick people pay doctor bills. But what about well people? Isn’t keeping people healthy a better service to patients than only treating them when they’re sick? And why do we always have to see a specialist? For a recent infection, I ended up going to three doctors: my primary care physician who referred me to a doctor who only does ears and another that only does noses. If the primary care physician can’t take care of me when I’m sick, might that part of the medical profession disappear?
The AMA, in fact, only represents about 30% of the 800,000 doctors practicing in the United States and many of those are residents and med students whose membership is subsidized. The organization’s bias is toward specialists and toward treating the sick rather than preventing illness in the first place.
President Obama came to Chicago to address the AMA about healthcare reform because it is still the industry’s most powerful lobbyist. But cost is not the only thing that needs reforming about healthcare. Which begs the question: How Relevant is the American Medical Association?
Younger doctors, more progressive organizations, creative thinkers who, for instance, design healthcare facilities more along the lines of retail establishments are the future of the profession. If the AMA and other healthcare associations are not part of that process, the profession will go off and leave them to begin its own network.
