Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Health Care Disparities and Reform and Marijuana
I have been a member of the American Medical Association for thirty years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. At the meeting of the AMA’s House of Delegates in Houston, the members took some bold policy action focusing on social issues and governmental regulations that they say interfere with providing better care to patients, including members of the LGBT community. Long seen as a conservative organization in opposition to social policy change, they say these changes are to help doctors better help their patients.
The House of Delegates passed a resolution calling on the military to abandon its policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell because it hurts the health care of gays and lesbians. Their report said that the policy violates doctor-patient relationships because patients are encouraged to lie to their doctors. The DADT policy requires to report personnel’s sexual orientation to their superiors.
Another resolution criticizes bans on same-sex marriage because those bans contribute to disparities in health. The resolution commits the AMA to reduce these health care disparities among members of same-sex households including minor children, and supports measures to provide same-sex households with the same rights and privileges to health care, health insurance and survivor benefits afforded opposite-sex households.
The AMA report noted that marriage is a strong predictor of health insurance, particularly among women. Gay and lesbian couples account for 1% of U.S. households, and gays’ partners are typically excluded from health care benefits such as insurance. and family and medical leave.
In another action, the AMA came out in support of health care overhaul, endorsing (following some controversy) the House Democrats’ bill to re-structure the nation’s health care system. In the past, the AMA has opposed changing the health care system, calling it “socialized medicine.”
The AMA also passed a resolution to ask the federal government to revisit the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and the development of cannabinoid-based medicines and alternate delivery methods.
I am left to wonder if this softening of the AMA tradition opposition to social policy change is related to the growing numbers of women physicians and openly gay physicians, and their increasing role in the organization’s leadership. And perhaps a few of them have also smoked weed.
It was a well written blog up until your last statement, which seems to disparage some of these changes by the AMA, which in my opinion, shows not a “softening” but a clearer perspective on what is ethically important as healthcare providers to recognize…that healthcare should be accessible to all. I am left to wonder why any physician would NOT support that approach.
No intent to disparage any of the decisions that are put forward by the AMA because I agree with all of the positions.
The last sentence was just to suggest that the leadership of the AMA has changed: More women, more openly gay physicians, and likely, many have tried smoking marijuana at some time and have a far different attitude than was espoused 30 years ago when I had to give drug lectures for my Navy squadron.