Free Custom «Advocacy Efforts by the AMA» Essay Paper

The American medical Association (AMA) is a nonprofit making health association in USA. The association constitutes physicians and doctors in the United States, who came together with an aim of advocating for rights of individuals in the medical field and patients. There are a several issues in the medical field that the federal government does not give the adequate attention and funding. Hus, with the formation of the American Medical Association, the physicians can ensure that these basic needs and conditions are available to them.

AMA involves itself in several advocacy activities and events. However, their advocacy scope does not only favor the physicians, who are the sole members and beneficiaries of the association. The association also fights for the rights of patients, such as favorable insurance premiums and quality medical services.

The American Medical Association usually conducts its advocacy activities through a select committee. The members of the association constituted a committee that has the mandate of identifying the areas that need attention and improvement in terms of quality and remuneration. This committee, however, is usually answerable to the executive management of the association, which then communicates with the rest association’s members on the actions that the association is planning to pursue. Thus, it is evident that the association has not bestowed all the powers of advocacy activities to on individual or office, but to a select committee that reports to the executive and members (American Medical Association, 2011).

 

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This committee usually meets on a frequent basis. In fact, depending on the urgency of the advocacy activity that the association is pursuing, it can meet weekly or after a fortnight. This shows how the association is dedicated to its mission and objectives.

The association conducts its advocacy activities on its own without involving other lobby groups. However, for instance, if the association is pursuing an issue that affects many categories of individuals in the society, it often involves other likeminded lobby groups in USA like the ACA (American Cancer Association). In cases where there is a need for new legislations, the association engages the federal government in advocating for such amendments and legislation.

One of the activities that the association has involved itself in is the push for medical liability reforms. Recently access to medical care has continued to be a burden to middle class citizens due to the rising costs of health care. Because of this, the association came in to push for amendments and the enactment of reforms in the medical liability bill. The federal government was not putting in adequate effort in making these reforms. However, with the pressure from the medical association and other lobby groups, patients can now access health care services and facilities at an affordable cost.

Another activity that the American Medical Association involved itself in is the reforms in the Medicare physician payment. Current payments or medical physicians were not reflecting the rising costs of medical practice in the medical profession. Thus, there was a need for the government to revise the payments upwards, so that the payments could meet the rising costs. The American Medical Association was among the leading nonprofit health organizations that pushed for amendments in this provision (American Medical Association, 2011).

Presently, we can say that the association has succeeded in more than half of its advocacy activities. For instance, the government revised the medical liability bill. Now, citizens can access health care services at a relatively cheaper price than it was before.

Generally, this association of physicians has been somewhat involved in its quest to ensure that quality healthcare services are available to the public and that the physicians get adequate remuneration that meets the rising costs of the medical profession. This is evident in the level of publicity that the association gets from the media in terms of pushing for reforms n the medical sector.