A Further Perspective
AMA: Marriage Is the Cure
But only in the case of gay marriage.
The American Medical Association has approved a resolution that has the thinnest veneer of science to cloak its pro-gay marriage agenda.
At its mid-year meeting last week, the good doctors considered a report from their Council on Science and Public Health ("Health Care Disparities in Same-Sex Households," Report I-09) and adopted a recommendation based on the report. We should first observe that the AMA states that, after the AMA formally accepted the report and voted a resolution on a recommendation made based on the report, the report is being submitted for publication by a peer-reviewed journal. One would think that the report should have been peer-reviewed before the AMA voted on it. Or, perhaps one would assume that the AMA itself constitutes a body of peers and has already given its review and imprimatur. Can a peer-reviewed journal now reject the report? Or change it in any way other than footnote citations?
Be that as it may, the AMA teaches us that (1) the health of adults and children may suffer if they do not have health insurance; (2) because gay couples are not allowed to marry, they and their children may not have health insurance; and (3) therefore, federal and state laws must change to allow gay couples to marry to improve their health and the health of their children. So, the AMA says marriage is the cure to lack of insurance.
The AMA report's Executive Summary (the only portion publicly accessible until publication) estimates that 1% of all households in the U.S. are same-sex households. This 1% includes both insured and uninsured households. Although the Executive Summary does not give a numerical split, we know that many same-sex households are insured by employers who cover domestic partners who are not married. The Human Rights Campaign webpage touts this. So, same-sex households can obtain insurance coverage from many employers without changing the laws of marriage. It is peculiar that, while we are consistently reminded that there are thirty million-plus American residents who lack health insurance, the AMA would focus on such a very, very small subset of the uninsured.
Nonetheless, we can agree with the Executive Summary that "[m]arriage is a strong predictor of health insurance…" Indeed, marriage and family life are strong predictors of health and well-being, of happiness, of longevity, of good education, of employment with health benefits, and of wealth creation (which in turn can pay for health insurance and/or health bills). Conversely, divorce and single parenthood are strong predictors of poverty, of lack of education, of shortened lifespan, of prison, of unemployment, of employment without health benefits, and of drug and alcohol abuse. Accordingly, if the AMA were less focused on its gay agenda, it might look at the various categories of people who are uninsured and recommend to them that they marry and remain married and recommend to all levels of government that they adopt strong pro-marriage policies.
The AMA might look at another category of uninsured people as well. If marriage is the cure to the lack of insurance for same-sex couples who are legally barred from getting married, then the AMA must surely regard marriage as the cure for other people in committed relationships who are legally barred from getting married. Thus, if an insured person is caring for an adult child or an aunt or an uncle or a cousin or a niece or a nephew who is uninsured, then the AMA should recommend that the law be changed to allow them to marry in order to obtain insurance coverage and improve their health.
If we are to allow gay couples to enter into domestic partnerships or marriage itself, then laws providing for civil unions and gay marriage, and employers providing benefits to their employees, should not discriminate against close kin. If gay couples can marry, then close kin must be given equal treatment -- under law and by employers.
A reason that may be used to justify such discrimination is the sexual taboo against the marriage of close kin. But marriage law does not require sexual relations or romantic love between partners to a marriage. Please see my piece on these pages two years ago. Furthermore, even the cultural tie between romantic love and marriage in Western civilization is a fairly recent one. Consider the tune "Do You Love Me?" in Fiddler on the Roof.
Yet we have lawyers and judges and governors and doctors and legislators who say love is -- now, in America in this decade -- a sufficient condition to marry. For example, in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, lawyer David Boies argued, "The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the right to marry the person you love is so fundamental that states cannot abridge it" (italics added). In deciding to sign same-sex marriage legislation, Maine Governor John Baldacci told the press that listening to Maine residents was "very emotional, very much a sort of baring of the soul that you're listening to and going through yourself."
If you're not gay, but a committed, caring relative, there is no evidence that the AMA and David Boies and Governor Baldacci are sympathetic to the plight of your loved one who is without insurance coverage.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (47) | Leave a comment
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Martin j smith| 11.18.09 @ 8:03AM
The AMA has made a political decision. Thus, they are no longer a general public reliable source of information. They are tainted by their politcal deision. Thus: They have lost my confidence in their views.
Melvin| 11.18.09 @ 8:18AM
Kind of like the AARP isn't it?
hunter| 11.18.09 @ 8:35AM
The AMA is a union for doctors and medical communtity, it uses this and their political clout because of their massive financial size to control the sizes of graduating doctors from medical school. They operate as a monopoly and encourage doctors to do the same by not advertising prices for services, and setting prices in cities and towns, so as to eliminate free trade. They take up for butchering doctors that are sued which end up costing good doctors higher insurance preminums, and letting the butcher loose to butcher again. The goverment has busted other monopolies in the past, and it past time to look at the AMA. This latest gay thing is just a sideshow, having everything locked down in the medical arena they display real desperation in bringing something like this up. Very sad.
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Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : AMA: Marriage Is the Cure [spectator links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ALWAYS VOTE| 11.18.09 @ 10:31AM
Gays do not realize that if a Healthcare bill is passed, they will no longer have a soapbox to stand upon. Their argument has always been about demanding right to marry so they could be qualified for Insurance benefits under a spouse's employer health coverage. That will no longer be a valid argument after a healthcare bill passes. Hussein Obama, their great hope, is actually going to be their downfall.
Wee Willie| 11.18.09 @ 11:15AM
Non leftists accuse leftists as being hypocritical. This in not true. In truth, the left reflects in a intellectual ghetto. Any information that is contrary to its worldview is ignored or put into memory hole and the bearers of such information are ostracized.
In the current health care bill in congress is strong support for forcing religions institutions and people to aid in abortions. This is forcing people to perform morally repugnant acts. Yet, the left actively prevent horse slaughter for human consumption. Note, leftist persons are neither forced to kill or eat said horses. Yet they wish to impose there values to force Christians to perform immoral acts but will prevent others from performing the useful service of culling horses and earning foreign exchange by shipping prime horse flesh to Japan or France .
Dave| 11.18.09 @ 11:53PM
Haven't done much research, huh? You said "earning foreign exchange by shipping prime horse flesh to Japan or France". The only one earning is Belgium. They own the plants and they get the profits. Lot of republican supporters. I don't think they are "the left". Not sure what this has to do with the AMA but if you got this wrong, I'm sure the rest of your post isn't quite accurate.
Chuck Anziulewicz| 11.18.09 @ 12:48PM
What you like to know what the REAL "Gay Agenda" is? It's the right for Gay individuals and couples to be treated equally to our Straight counterparts under the law. Nothing more, nothing less.
Exactly how is allowing Gay couples the exact same legal benefits, protections, and responsibilities that Straight couples have always taken for granted going to affect “traditional marriage?" Marriage equality for Gay couples will have precisely ZERO impact on your life, your marriage, your church, and your children. Your church will never be forced to marry Gay couples, any more than it is forced to marry non-Christian couples. Public schools will not be forced to “teach” about Gay marriage, any more than they are forced to teach about Straight marriage.
Instead you should ask yourself why law-abiding, taxpaying Gay Americans should be forced to subsidize all the legal benefits and responsibilities that Straight couples enjoy, when we are unable to take advantage of those same incentives to marry? And since when do voters get to decide that the rights that apply to them DO NOT apply to minorities?
John II| 11.18.09 @ 7:49PM
"Exactly how is allowing Gay couples the exact same legal benefits, protections, and responsibilities that Straight couples have always taken for granted going to affect 'traditional marriage'?"
The answer, if you're interested, is partly contained in the smugness of your rhetorical question, plus the added bonus of scare-quotes on the term "traditional marriage." You wouldn't listen to an answer if it were given to you. You clearly believe that, on this issue, you already know everything.
You don't. In fact, you know and care very little of any spiritual depth or psychological substance about the issue, else you would be less prone to the smug restriction of the issue to the level of politics and economics.
Anthony| 11.21.09 @ 7:57AM
It's important to read The Manhattan Declaration, released yesterday, on this issue.
I'm sorry for the pain gay people have on this topic. However, after seeing, as a resident, the retribution for Maine's gay marriage vote--the death threats, harassment of and demonstrations against Catholic churches and now threats to remove religious tax exemptions in Maine-- all developments which go unreported by the national media, I'm fed up with this agenda and its assault on the First Amendment.
Jim Hlavac| 11.18.09 @ 1:04PM
Well, this conservative, Ronald Reagan (and probably Palin) voting, liberty loving, tax hating, government despising, Obamatized disgruntled gay man, a regular reader of AS for 34 years despite the continual anti-gay words that despoil your love of liberty -- has no truck with the AMA, AARP or other leftists and socialists and their alleged call for gay rights -- or what ever they think it is. Gay rights are simple. All Mankind Are Entitled to Certain Inalienable Rights, Among Them ... The Pursuit of Happiness. And for this magazine, this bastion of claimed liberty, to not see -- no, refuses to even accede to the potential, never mind the probability, that Gay people are American taxpaying citizens who just want to be left alone -- and not to declared an enemy of the people a la Stalin -- and not worry about the knock at the door by the police for some supposed "crime against society" or "nature" or whomever you think created all these gay people, well, then this country is faced with a choice between Right wing busy bodies who are obsessed with my life, and Left wing busy bodies who are ... ditto. Then what the hell do I do?
I'm left concluding that all the gays should move to one state, and vote us out of the Union. For either I get the same right to be left alone as you or I do not. How you guys can be so pro-liberty and small government and independent thinking and then fall lock step into a constant attack on your fellow citizens for the "crime" of difference and plea to be left alone is beyond me. You all have a defect some where, that's for sure.
DO NOT, I repeat, Do not, lump me in with whomever is claiming gay rights unless they are founded on the Declaration of Independence's rather simple ALL MEN -- not "all straight people." My God made me gay -- I can't figure out why I would "choose" to be belittled by folks for decades now -- and, amazingly, though never mentioned -- obviously I have to be able to over ride "nature" itself. It boggles the mind folks.
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Oldefarte| 11.18.09 @ 2:28PM
Beyond the extreme immorality of homosexuality, the disguised mantra for same-sex marriage is the desired access to employer-company 'BENEFITS' that this unnatural coupling will allow, to the detrimental expense and demise of said employment firms!!!!!!!!
rainbow anarcho-capitalist 77| 11.19.09 @ 1:01AM
Actually, private firms have been enthusiastic to provide benefits to gay couples, without compulsion, and without marriage laws. Many of the Fortune 500 companies provide benefits to domestic partners voluntarily. And it is understandable. Businessmen would not do that if there wasn't a benefit to be gained from providing such benefits. And in all states that these businesses are in, there are no laws forcing businesses to give same-sex domestic partner benefits that I am aware of. I know that my state doesn't, and despite that fact, some of the larger law firms have domestic partner benefits. Incidently, it is the non-profits and the Governmental entities that have been discriminatory. So before you make some ludicrous statement such as the one you made, try getting out of your armchair and look around at the world instead of staring around your office. Sheez, armchair thinkers. Next thing you know they will tell us how broadcast television and private lighthouses are impossible.
American Medical Association| 11.18.09 @ 3:11PM
Mr. Thunder is misinformed. He states that he only read a one-page executive summary of an AMA report, yet he is confident enough with that bit of information to leap to a conclusion. Let me be clear: the AMA does not have a position either supporting or opposing gay marriage, but did examine the health care disparties that exist in same-sex households.
The AMA House of Delegates, the nation’s largest, most inclusive group of physicians and medical students in the nation, meets twice a year to review hundreds of issues and to form policy. A report that examined health care disparities affecting same-sex households and evaluated whether or not exclusion from civil marriage contributed to these disparities was a part of this year’s agenda. As a physician organization we are concerned with the health of all patients and work to address health disparities to improve the quality of care in the U.S. The full policy adopted on the issue of health care disparities in same-sex households can be viewed here: http://www.ama-assn.org/assets.....ities.pdf.
In regard to AMA efforts to cover the uninsured, over the last few years we have invested more than $15 million in our Voice for the Uninsured campaign to call attention to the uninsured crisis and lay the groundwork for health reform that expands coverage to all Americans. As you can see from the recently passed House health bill, efforts to expand health insurance coverage are already underway. All Americans deserve access to affordable health insurance coverage, and the AMA will continue advocating for this and other reforms that benefit patients and physicians.
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All In One Information » The American Spectator : AMA: Marriage Is the Cure links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John II| 11.18.09 @ 5:37PM
If the AMA posting above isn't a scam cooked up by one of the AMA's political opponents, then I have to say both the tortured substance and the gnarly expression of the posting are helpful exhibits and further proof of the principal points made by Mr. Thunder. It appears that the AMA has devolved into yet another professional organization in slavish adherence to the Zeitgeist: intellectually dishonest and deeply politicized.
Micky Dennis| 11.18.09 @ 9:16PM
As a physician I am repulsed by the AMA's recommendation on gay marriage and their support of the democrats' takeover of healthcare. I want nothing to do with them. The AAP, American Academy of Pediatrics, takes similar socialist stands and also lacks any sense of morality or respect for others' idea of morality. They also back Pelosi's "healthcare reform". A few months back they put out a strange change in recommendations for Synagis, a preventative shot given to prevent a respiratory illness especially dangerous in preemie babies. It seems they now think it is not cost effective to give it to babies over 32 weeks gestation, although no new science supports this. The recent mammography recommendation changes are similar in intent- to ration. They are just following Obama's orders, with no regard to the patients.
Supra TK Society| 11.18.09 @ 10:57PM
A report that examined health care disparities affecting same-sex households and evaluated whether or not exclusion from civil marriage contributed to these disparities was a part of this year’s agenda.
BillCC| 11.19.09 @ 6:48AM
Jim Hlavac writes above that gays are "taxpaying citizens who just want to be left alone".
If only that were so.
A more accurate statement comes from the common sign held at gay rallies:"We're here, we're queer, and we're coming after your children".
The object of the gay advocacy is nothing less than the queering of America.
He also states "my God made me gay".
There is no evidence for the "born that way" advocacy. Adoption of a homosexual lifestyle is made by choice.
If gays wish to institutionalize the homosexual lifestyle, they should at least be honest in their advocacy.
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Tony in Central PA| 11.19.09 @ 10:30PM
As a member of the ADA - - the American Dental Association - - I am reminded of the mantra of our sometimes beleaugered assocation at the 2009 meeting. Whenever some dumb idea is hatched ; " We don't want to end up like the AMA, do we ? ".
Dave M.| 11.22.09 @ 12:08PM
The thing that endangers male homosexual health the most is not the lack of health insurance, it is their behavior. But hey, the AMA is a medical organization so why should it just base its opinion on medical fact. Besides, because so many doctors are leaving the AMA, it needs stimulus dollars.
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