Why the AMA’s actions are raising alarms
American medicine is entering a period of institutional breakdown.
Editor’s Note: While the AMA is an American institution, its governance and political posture shape medical and research norms across North America and globally.
Before Dr. Mehmet Oz’s Nov 17 speech to the AMA, AMA leadership told physicians that any expression of dissent would result in loss of credentials, according to multiple attendees.
Oz, under President Trump, now leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Days before his address, the AMA permanently shut down the AMA Journal of Ethics, a 20-year-old publication built to help clinicians navigate the moral dimensions of medicine.Â
Editors and contributors received no warning in advance.
Meanwhile, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has threatened to bar federal scientists from publishing in JAMA, NEJM, and The Lancet, accusing the journals of undue pharma industry influence, and suggesting he could create new, in-house alternatives.Â
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened inquiries into leading medical journals for alleged partisanship.Â
These developments unfold as the MAHA Commission proposes an overhaul of medical education that would bring curricula in line with the Trump administration’s priorities.
At the same time, the AMA faces scrutiny from the U.S. Senate over its monopoly of CPT billing codes, with Senate HELP Chair Bill Cassidy accusing the AMA of “abusing” its monopoly and burdening the system with unnecessary costs.Â
Fewer than a quarter of U.S. physicians are members of the AMA. Its financial stability now depends mostly on CPT royalties. Economist Matt Stoller notes that financial dependence on a single, government-supported revenue stream leaves the AMA highly vulnerable to political pressure.
It is in this context that Mehmet Oz delivered his speech to the AMA House of Delegates meeting.
Delegates were particularly discomforted by one comment: “When the music stops and everyone has to sit down, guess who doesn’t get a chair? You.”Â
Attendees interpreted this as clarifying the stakes of resistance to the administration’s planned reforms. Oz also told the audience that physician payments are the “easiest” to cut.
MedPage Today separately reported that AMA leadership warned delegates that anyone causing a disruption would be removed and have their credentials revoked.
Other than a lone “boo” during the speech, there were no expressions of dissent.Â
The organization’s public statement did not acknowledge any of this. It instead expressed appreciation for Oz’s “vision for collaboration,” obscuring both the content of his remarks and the internal pressure applied to its own members.
The AMA did not respond to direct questions about the warnings delegates received or about the abrupt shutdown of the AMA Journal of Ethics.
This analysis relies on publicly accessible documents, reporting from national U.S. outlets, and corroborated first-person accounts from event attendees.
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AMA Journal of Ethics shutdown (MedPage Today):
https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/118526
Dr. Oz speech to AMA House of Delegates — urging AMA to “push back on orthodoxy” (MedPage Today):
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/ama/118572
RealClearHealth: Breaking down AMA’s CPT monopoly and financial incentives:
https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2025/07/25/time_to_break_the_amas_billing_code_monopoly_1125002.html
NYT coverage of MAHA’s attack on medical school accreditation (May 29, 2025):
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/well/maha-report-citations.html
PolitiFact: MAHA report contained AI-generated fake citations (May 30, 2025):
https://api.politifact.com/article/2025/may/30/MAHA-report-AI-fake-citations/
AMA official statement on Dr. Oz’s speech (Nov 2025):
Archive copy (in case AMA revises):
