Oh, good grief, me-thinks you need to re-check your numbers.

You mean the 250K membership or the word "most"? If you are saying that 250K is only 20% of physicians then you must accept that the sorts of physician groups you have quoted represent 0.4% of physicians. Of this sample of affiliated physicians, 250K does meet the definition of "most." ;-)

By the way, exactly when did you "clip" your original reply?

As soon as you'd read it, as usual. ;-)

LOL. fact is that the AMA is by far the largest physician representative group out there and does have the most credibility. If it were true that physicians agree that government needs to be expelled from medicine then membership in the splinter groups you prefer would be more than a few thousand. Also you should remember that many practicing physicians have traveled or worked elsewhere in the first world and/or are in regular working relationships with physicians elsewhere in the first world, meaning they have had constant exposure to health systems that have not increased cost or driven physicians out of work. IOW they're less susceptible to predictions of doom and disaster- or to predictions of overflowing milk and honey. As always, the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes.

FWIW I'd be interested to know whether you agree with the proposal that physicians should not be able to own hospitals. Maybe it should be tried on bankers or lawyers (or IT professionals?) first to see what a good idea it is. ;-) Needless to say, this is one area that the AMA opposes in the current plan.