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by EvanAnderson 2038 days ago
The AMA lobbied in the 90s to limit federally funded residency slots. This served to restrict supply of doctors because medical schools base acceptance on available residency slots. The AMA has pushed for more funding of residency slots in more recent times, but their lobbying behavior in the 90s clearly shows they have an interest in controlling the supply of doctors.
1 comments

The AMA was founded to get control of the "snake oil salesman" problem in the 1800s, and their stated method was lobbying to get licensing laws passed in every state. Controlling who gets to be a doctor was unambiguously the central function of the organization. Along the way, they were no doubt approached with a lot of other suggestions about how they could help and once they outlived their original purpose, have carried on as a zombie improving their ability to profit from all the little suggestions they got along the way.
To (mis-)quote Eric Hoffer, “Every great cause starts off as a movement, turns into a business, and ends up as a racket.”
Is that misquoting? I think that's almost verbatim the quote.