Reply #12: Not entirely true... [View All]

[derby378]

From the website:

All health professionals are included in this category: various physicians, psychiatrists, dentists, chiropractors, pharmacists, nurses, nutritionists and anyone else providing health care services—as well as their professional associations. (Chiropractors, dentists and nurses are subsets of this industry and are profiled in greater detail within this section.)

Only four other industries, along with retirees, spent more than health professionals on political campaigns during the 2008 election cycle. Key players within the industry include the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association and the American Society of Anesthesiologists. All three seek to increase health professionals’ compensation under Medicare and expand access to health care for people in underserved areas. The AMA is the industry’s largest trade group, and focuses on reforming the medical liability system, as well as resisting government-run health care. In 2009, President Barack Obama pitched his plan for a public insurance option to an AMA convention, an indication of the group’s power within the health care community.

http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/background.php?cycle=2010&ind=H01

The AMA has been working against actual health insurance reform for a long, long time.