Shall Organized Medicine be Unified, or Separate?

At present, physicians in California who choose to join organized medicine do so through their county medical societies, and membership in the California Medical Association and the American Medical Association is then automatic. At the March meeting of the CMA House of Delegates, question was raised whether membership in CMA, and the AMA, or both should remain automatic.The House requested an ad hoc committee to cause a "poll and its attendant statements to be developed by May 21 for copy distribution to component medical societies and printing in the CMA membership news media-with mailing of the official questionnaires to the society members on September 1, 1971." Members will be asked to express their opinions by ballot in September.The Speaker of the House appointed an ad hoc committee of the House to conduct this informed opinion poll of the membership. The committee has met to set ground rules, prepare accurate pro and con statements and write the poll questions-in accord with the directions of the House action.The Informed Membership Opinion Poll Committee, with the advice of Decision Making Information, Inc., an independent consultant, prepared statements regarding unified and separate membership in CMA and AMA from comments which were solicited from every county medical society. A statement by legal counsel for the California Medical Association on the structural relationship of AMA, CMA and component societies, and the statements on unified or separate membership prepared by the committee appear on the following two pages.