Accusing the American Medical Association of putting “profits ahead of patient care” by joining the corporate fight against Medicare for All, a coalition of physicians, nurses, and allies plans to march on the organization’s annual meeting on Saturday to demand an end to its longstanding opposition to single-payer.

“America’s doctors see the harm that our profit-oriented, fragmented healthcare system imposes on patients—and how it impedes our work as physicians.”
—Adam Gaffney, Physicians for a National Health Program

The AMA is America’s largest association of physicians, one of the largest lobbying organizations in the U.S., and a founding member of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a coalition formed by insurance and pharmaceutical interests to combat Medicare for All.

On Saturday, medical professionals dressed in their scrubs and white coats intend to rally at the AMA’s gathering at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago to make clear that the organization’s anti-Medicare for All stance does not represent the view of all—or even most—physicians and nurses.

“America’s doctors see the harm that our profit-oriented, fragmented healthcare system imposes on patients—and how it impedes our work as physicians,” tweeted Adam Gaffney, president of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), which helped organize Saturday’s march alongside National Nurses United (NNU), Students for a National Health Program, and other groups.

“So tomorrow,” Gaffney said, “we’re calling on the AMA to join us in the fight for a better, more just healthcare system for everyone.”

In an op-ed for The Guardian on Thursday, a group of medical students and organizers planning to take part in Saturday’s march wrote that while the “AMA claims to represent the interests and values of our nation’s doctors… it has long been the public relations face of America’s private health insurance system, which treats healthcare as a commodity.”

“Medical students and professionals have had enough,” the group added. “This Saturday’s protest is only one example.”

In a 2017 survey, physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins found that 56 percent of doctors either strongly or somewhat support a single-payer system.

Alluding to that data, Gaffney tweeted that the “AMA is not speaking for the American medical profession when it comes to healthcare reform.”

“It’s time for the AMA to leave the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future,” Gaffney said in a statement, “and join the majority of physicians who support improved Medicare for All.”