As more and more of us become employees, the only way the ASA and ASAPAC will get our loyalty will be if they manage to either reverse the trend, or establish a national union to fight for the employed anesthesiologists. Otherwise, they are rapidly becoming just another AMA, asking for about a workday's net income just for their annual membership fee. Mmm... I don't think so!
Why would an employed physician care about the level of reimbursement for anesthesia services etc., when 75% of those reimbursements end up in the pockets of his employer? Oh, they will cut our incomes even more? They do it anyway if they can.
The ASA has let the AMC situation get out of hand. Somehow I don't remember the ASA ever speaking out against AMCs. Surprise! Those AMCs don't care about donating to the ASA(PAC), no more than employees do. That's what those donation numbers really mean! The membership has a much different mentality now. The same way a renter has a different mentality from a houseowner.
Not to speak about the ABA, which has become an entire (re)certification industrial complex. Guess what, ASAPAC? All the money I would have given you is going to the ABA. If you convince them to get rid of many of those useless and/or expensive MOCA stuff, I promise I'll reverse the flow.
P.S. But all of you who are (still) partners should feel really ashamed.