Depression of the 1930s

progressive doctors sought to organize themselves into the first health cooperatives

so that they could provide care to working families under a group plan

the AMA

prohibited members from working for those early health maintenance organizations

the AMA dedicated millions of dollars to stopping universal health care in the United States, even as other developed nations were establishing a variety of successful systems that covered every citizen while holding down costs

When President Harry Truman proposed a national health plan in 1948, the AMA unleashed a Red-baiting fury

In the book "The Culture of the Cold War," Stephen J. Whitfield recalls how the AMA vowed to "resist the enslavement of the medical profession," warning that Truman was attempting to impose "a monstrosity of Bolshevik bureaucracy" on America

The same pamphlets smeared supporters of Truman's "compulsory health insurance" plan by connecting them to the Communist Party