Recently, I watched a televised hearing before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. A representative of the American Medical Association testified before the committee. The lobbyist was evidently trying to force pharmaceutical companies to get a pre-clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before they run an advertisement of an already FDA-approved prescription drug.

You can legally access a prescription drug only through pharmacy via a doctor's script, in this country anyway. A doctor is the gatekeeper, even if online. A medical doctor spends years in both medical school and residency before he or she can practice medicine. Many of them spend years more time in additional training pursuing a specialization. I hope you are still awake.

Why?

Here is where it gets interesting. The representative from the AMA, a group that supposedly represents doctors, is afraid that your doctor is not diplomatic or tough enough to resist you if you insist on suggesting the latest over-advertised whiz-bang prescription. That concoction was no doubt extolled in an advertisement sandwiched between your favorite television programming and a Victoria's Secret commercial. Hey, I should write about what I observe, shouldn't I?

The AMA is, of course, concerned that you, the patient, might want to take an active role in helping choose the course of your care. Among other things, they don't want your doctor to be bothered by your questions.

I have several problems with the exalted AMA's concerns - more than several, actually - but I will contain myself.

Just where do our arrogant demi-gods at the American Medical Association get off on telling us, whose very lives might be on the line, that we should only get information about pharmaceuticals from our doctors? Hold on, oh high and mighty ones. Are patients to be kept in ignorance until they see the family doc?

I guess we should hide other info from the public if it suits professionals who have well-funded associations like the AMA. Why don't we paint all the street signs black and make folks guess the speed limits? The speed limits are only for the police and municipal judges. I know of at least one municipal judge who might like it that way.

Under questioning, the AMA rep had to admit that polling showed that patients derived 92 percent of their information about prescription drugs from their doctors. So what is the real agenda? Well, during the hearing, the AMA lobbyist's main complaint was that they had verified instances of patients changing doctors because certain doctors would not prescribe advertised drugs. Imagine that. Right here in the land of the free and home of the over-taxed, we have patients who change doctors. Gad, say it isn't so! Free citizens choosing their own medical care providers. Will wonders never cease?

OK, all the following caveats and more apply. Maybe changing doctors over a prescription choice was not the best thing for the patient. Maybe the patient chose a doctor who is not the most ethical. Well, if the doc isn't ethical and/or is prescribing haphazardly, that could be an issue for several organizations I can think of, including the AMA, the FDA and perhaps the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The fact that there could be problems with a patient's decision to switch doctors over a prescription does not change the principle, nor should it set the AMA's lobbyist loose among the congressmen. It is consistent with the values of our society that you should have the right to change doctors for any reason. Most doctors will never miss you, anyway. There is usually a line at my doc's, and he even has a hard time taking a few days off. I bet it is the same way at your doctor's office.
The real crux of the matter is that the AMA doesn't seem to trust its own doctors. The association wants the government to pass a law, all because the AMA thought its doctors were unable to resist patient pressure to prescribe drugs that the doctors themselves thought were inappropriate. I would suggest that any medical doctor who cannot resist patient pressure to prescribe a medication that they think unwise should not be entrusted with a medical license.

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