Secondly, and more importantly, the APA and the AACAP failed to support a universal health care option in any substantial manner and allowed Obamacare to become the poor compromise it is back when they had a real opportunity to influence that legislation. This is probably, as others have said, because the APA is more interested in preserving private practice income in the short term than it is helping those with mental illness, many of which cannot afford insurance. I decided I would not fund an organization that opposes fully universal healthcare.
Since socialized medicine is for the foreseeable future a lost cause in the U.S., I may rejoin just to get the conference discounts and put APA membership back on my C.V. Maybe others here are right and physicians like me should advocate for change as members. I'm not quite ready yet to concede that, however. Like the ABPN, I would like to see people stop giving them money, because money is the only language I feel the organization truly understands at this time.
