2 Doctors Hit AMA Anti-Health Law Dues at Med School Forum Tonight

Two local doctors will attack the $25 assessment of members by the American Medical Association to combat government health insurance at the Physicians' Forum at the Medical School tonight.

The pair have sketched their objections to the assessment in the latest New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Allan M. Butler, professor of Pediatrics, fears that doctors, particularly younger ones, who don't pay the assessment may lose their AMA membership and thus have trouble getting hospital positions.

Would Double Income

"If AMA membership depends on paying an assessment which more than doubles the AMA's income and which is used to oppose the policy of the President of the United States and the majority of Congress," Dr. Butler declared, "the AMA's major purpose becomes not only political but highly controversial."

Dr. Henry S. Forbes '05, also writing in the journal, charges that there is no evidence that the money "will be used in an unbiased search for facts or in the promotion of impartial discussion." He suspects that the actual purpose is to influence opinion in one direction by presenting one side of a controversial issue."

"I believe it is unethical," Forbes stated, "and until a referendum is held. I have no intention of paying this tax."