Portent

Last week saw a. portent in U.S. medicine -- a new medical organization which claimed members in 48 states. Its name: the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Its aim: defeat of any Government group medicine.

The association got its start last winter when the Lake County (Ind.) Medical Society, paralleling the conservative National Physicians Committee, decided to combat the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill (now in Congressional committees), which proposes Government medical insurance for most U.S. citizens. In February the association launched a drive for members at $10 a head. The current Medical Economics reports that several county medical societies have joined en bloc.

The association will function somewhat as the American Medical Association does, with a House of Delegates. It will not conflict with the A.M.A.'s scientific and educational work, but will pinch-hit in legislative matters, where "the A.M.A. can do little more on ... legislation, public relations and medical economics" because of its defeat by the U.S. Supreme Court a year ago (TIME, Jan. 25, 1943) in the Group Health Association case.

Association bylaws provide that:

P: "Members who participate in such schemes [as the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill] for the distribution of their services will be expelled."

P: "The association . . . will studiously avoid attempts at coercion of nonmembers"--to avoid the restraint-of-trade pitfall that caught the A.M.A.

"Members will refuse to associate professionally with nonmembers when more than 75% of the eligible physicians in any community become members. They will not refer patients to nonmembers. They will not consult with them or serve on the staff of the same hospital with them..."

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