1889-1976
American Medical Association Spokesman

A "Socialized Medicine" Opponent.

One of the strongest opponents of "socialized medicine" in any form was Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia. When the Group Health Association (GHA) of Washington formed a medical cooperative in November 1937, Fishbein led the battle to oppose them. For years the American Medical Association and most of its state and county medical societies were guided by the principle that a corporation could not practice medicine, and Fishbein was its primary spokesman. The idea behind a medical cooperative such as the GHA was to give patients financial relief with prepaid health insurance "premiums" and to improve the incomes of physicians by paying them fixed salaries from these premiums. In less than a year this medical corporation had nearly twenty-five hundred members. The Medical Society of Washington, D.C...