HOW THE AMA BARS REFUGEE DOCTORS

...THE DISCRIMINATORY METHODS of the medical monopoly are also applied through national specialization organizations which exercise great control over the practice of medical specialties in this country...

...When he applied for membership in the society, he learned that its charter required five years residence in Massachusetts for membership...

...When the National Committee for the Resettlement of Foreign Physicians told the Commissfoh it had several interested phy•kuutt at Ma da*>oa*L the Michigan jCiVtt Service Coafinsiaslnrt turned down the offer—<m the #ole ground that foreign-graduated physicians had to, attend the senior year in an American medical school...

...In Minnesota, there is one doctor for 1,015 people, slightly over the AMA maximum, but Arkansas has 2,001 people to each doctor, or twice that maximum...

...The same AMA heard a report from ts Council on Medical Education and Iospitals in 1947, declaring that "we !iave resources at graduate level for foreign physicians...

...This is how it wastes valuable medical manpower...

...Ohio requires proof of full citixenship along with other requisites...

...And yet, in most states of the Union — thanks in great measure to the same American Medical Association, nearly 5,000 skilled refugee physicians are barred from practice...

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...It fails to comment on the widespread belief, as expressed by Professor Davie, that "in the case of foreign physicians, there are special and additional requirements to be met for licensure, which can only be interpreted as discrimination against them...

...Michigan has a similar requirement and also requires full citizenship...

...that the San Diego County Medical Society sought establish "business and social ostracism," to restrict consultations with the Society members and to bar a number of physicians and their patients from major hospitals...

...lustratai eaher uaft 4i tfca tnenfterahip weapoai tn both caeat, doetava who support** different prepaid medical care plana were black-balled by the medical monopoly...

...first case, the Department of Justice, last fall charged that the Oregon Medical Society had .violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act ^>y monopolizing prepaid medical care...

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...The AMA stopped its recognition of European medical schools in 1939, on the ground that it had no way of I'hecking their educational standards in wartime...

...however, its board rejected a candidate for licensure — who had met the other requirements—because his diploma from the University of Berlin had been signed by the ViceMinister of Education instead of the Minister himself...

...The overwhelming majority of foreign physicians now in the United States are practicing in these nonrestricted areas...

...Its Civil Service Commission recently advertised a severe shortage of doctors in state hospitals, and invited out-ofstate doctors to apply...

...The Journal of the AMA dismissed both complaints in its November 13, 1948, issue as "political ventures in the field of health, like the compulsory sickness insurance program" advocated by President Truman and Federal Security Administrator Oscar Ewing...

...Sixty-seven of them were listed in the 1944 edition of "American Men of Science...

...Trie National Board decided not to accept the applications of graduates of European medical schools after Feb...

...Refugees in America," Maurice R. Davie...

...The complaint declared that the Society's requirements for membership is recommendation by two members, but that the members "refused to sign the applications of those connected with the prepaid medical care plan organization...

...The Journal of the AMA reminds us that in 1947, 52.9 percent of foreign graduates failed in their licensure examinations before different state boards of medical examiners...

...N. could not afford to wait five years and moved to New York, already jammed with physicians...

...At least 18 states are officially closed to all graduates of foreign medical schools, whether or not they are citizens...

...Rhode Island, lor instance, requires aliens to complete the senior year of medical studies at an American school...

...The report cites^, however, a series of requirements which could eventually enable a foreigner to make the grade...

...The "competition" angle is put in proper perspective when one remembers that refugee doctors constitute only three per cent of all American physicians...

...For example: Dr...

...In part," Prof...

...Inttreattrrgry enough, five members of the National Board are...

...two are nominated by the Council on MedicalJSducation and Hospitals of the American Medical Association...

...An instance of these methods is shown in the regulations promulgated by the American Board of Internal Medicine with regard to the requirements for the certification of graduates of foreign medical schools: Graduates of medical schools outside of the United States and Canada who request an evaluation of their qualifications for admission to the examinations of the Board cannot be given official consideration at this time...

...Another anti-refugee gimmick is to require the certificate of the National Board of Medical Examiners for a ljcense...

...The local citizens petitioned the state government to grant hint a permanent license...

...New York has 640 patients to a. doctor, the lowest proportion in the Union, and a distinct contrast to Kentucky or Mississippi, where frequently ^there is only o.ie doctor for every two thousand inhabitants...

...When medical societies refuse to admit certain doctors to membership, this is sufficient to influence hospitals to close their doors to the "blackballed" physicians...

...Reports from communities where these doctors practiced were almost unanimous in their praise...

...The other 16 states fall in between...

...Chairman of the Department of Sociology at Yale University, writes that "refugee physicians have experienced great difficulty in adjustment and have aroused more opposition than any other professional group...

...But when he applied for hospitalisation for a woman patient, the local hospital turned her down—on the ground that Dr...

...This is how the medical monopoly works...

...The monopoly - dictated law.s recounted above give part of the answer, but there are other methods of restriction...

...One such provision is the requirement made by eighteen states and Alaska to the effect that only U. S. citizens can practice medicine in their territories...

...These states require proof of intent to become a citizen, licensure by the state boards and, usually, a year of U.S...

...But according to Professor Davie, a great majority of these men and women "are highly qualified and some of them were outstanding specialists of international reputation...

...During the last war, when the shortage of civilian doctors in some sections of the country became critical, several states granted temporary licenses to a number of foreign doctors who were distributed jointly by the National Committee for Resettlement of Foreign Physicians and the government's Procurement and Assignment Service...

...The AMA itself endorsed this policy as early as 1930...

...For refugee doctors, too, can save American lives...

...Outstanding among these extra-legal methods is the barring of physicians from hospitals...

...Responsibility for this waste of refugee manpower lies with local medical societies in the restricted states and with the American Medical Association...

...There is no prescribed mechanism by which the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the AMA can evaluate the qualitiy of foreign medical education...

...But little has been done to offer these graduate courses in American medical schools to foreign doctors, and AMA-approved schools still admit only those students who have completed their entire education — secondary and collegiate — in the United States...

...In the second case, a non-profit organization operating a medical care plan charged that the San Diego County Medical Society, the California Medical Association and the American Medical Association constituted a "medical trust conniving to control the practice of medicine in San Diego and elsewhere...

...Why then can't the immense reserves of medical manpower concentrated in spots like New York City l>e channeled to such areas...

...THE MONOPOLY'S FOREMOST legal weapons are the medical boards tf examiners* and license laws and regulations, through which, in at least eighteen states, it can bar graduates of foreign medical schools outright from undergoing license examinations...

...According to the files of the National Committee for Resettlement of Foreign Physicians (a non-sectarian specialized relief agency), however, an overwhelming majority of refugee doctors are willing to settle and practice anywhere in the United States, in in ban and rural areas alike...

...nominated by the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States...

...In his book...

...No foreign doctor can possibly meet them...

...The complaint also revealed that the San Diego telephone directory specifically designates the doctors who are members of the Society, thereby conveying the idea that non-members are not fully qualified to practice medicine...

...Since it takes at least five years to receive full citizenship, this provision discourages most foreigners—few of whom can afford to remain idle that long—from practicing in "citizenship clause" states...

...ALIEN PHYSICIANS are allowed to practice freely upon meeting requirements in New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Indiana, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Florida and the District of Columbia...

...Since the American Medical Association has set a maximum standard of 1,000 patients for each doctor, ten million people are virtually deprived of medical attention...

...N. practiced fifteen years in Poland, worked four years in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and continued his professional activity in a DP camp...

...Not long ago...

...But at the end of the war the temporary licenses were immediately revoked and the foreign physicians forced to take their practice elsewhere...

...This is how it toys' with the health of American citizens...

...six represent the Federal Services, and fourteen are "elected at large...

...The New York state board recognizes medical education begun in Europe before January 1, 1940, and exempts British-graduated doctors from even that rule...

...N. was not a member of the New England Medical Society...

...That's your problem," the board's secretary told him...

...In other states, the monopoly employs extra-legal methods frequently used as well against American doctors ¦who invade "closed shop" areas or against physicians who openly support various' health insurance programs— private or federal...

...BED TAPE is another great asset to the medieal monopoly in its campaign against «lien physicians...

...OTHER LEGAL OR EXTRA-LEGAL provisions, or loopholes in existing law, permit elimination of refugee doctors in states without outright legislation (barring them...

...N. obtained a license in Massachusetts and opened an office in a small industrial town...

...Proof of professional ability is obviously not enough to satisfy the Board and the AMA, which, incidentally, helped create the Board...

...The certificate of the National Board is accepted but not required in fortyfour states, while Alabama, Colorado and Mississippi make it a sine qua non condition for licensure...

...Unlike the state boards, the NBME is not fully appointed by federal and state governments, but was founded in 1915 by the president of tha American Medical Association...

...Among the acts allegedly undertaken by the Oregon Medical Society is restricting the use of "hospital facilities by physicians cooperating in medical care plans" and "preventing Oregon hospitals from allowing their facilities to be used by physicians and patients associated with the plan...

...A backwoods community in Kentucky lost its Austrian doctor this way and was left completely without medical care because Us regular doctor had moved to Louisville...

...The members "at large" usually follow and endorse the course charted by the monopoly...

...Refugee physicians, it is claimed, are reluctant to practice in underprivileged areas, and seek to establish themselves only in big cities like New York or Chicago...

...But the restrictions imposed ,dso affect European physicians graduated before 1939—when the AMA was -till granting recognition...

...The complaint further charges that the Oregon Medical Society barred from membership those physicians who cooperated with the plan...

...The Journal thus hastily concludes that the standards of all foreign physicians are way below ours...

...three are nominated by the Association pf American Medical Colleges...

...THE CHIEF ARGUMENT invoked by the medical monopoly is that the refugee's professional training is inferior to that of the average American doctor...

...Germany no longer existed as a state, the candidate told the board, and the Minister no longer had the authority to sign diplomas, having just been sentenced to Hfe imprisonment by the International Court in Nuremberg...

...that it spread "false propaganda" and "made Oregon hospital facilities available only to its members...

...Tad Ssulc, a newspaperman now writing a book on South America, was formerly Rio de Janeiro correspondent for th* French Press Agency and for the Associated Press...

...Davie explains, "this has been due to the fear of their competition and in part to the control exercised by American medicine, the most highly organized of all professions...

...The Board ruled that he would have to obtain the Minister's signature...

...But the AMA-approved medical schools refuse foreign candidates unless they have completed their secondary and college education in the United States...

...These are the same organizations which attempt to keep young graduates of American medical schools from establishing practice in "closed-shop" areas and which are now pouring millions of dollars into a high-pressure campaign against national health insurance...

...Most other states raise other legal and extra-legal obstacles, despite the fact that American medical schools are graduating proportionally fewer students each year, and despite constant warnings by such experts as Surgeon General Thomas Parran that America's doctor shortage is likely to assume catastrophic proportions within the next five or ten years...

...Strangely enough, in these states, the shortage of doctors is mos^ acutely felt...

...The petition was balked by the medical lobby, and the community has been living without a doctor since* 1946...