Differences between California Medical Association, managed-care group go beyond ‘death with dignity’

The controversial bill to give doctors the right to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients is back in the news this week, moving through the Assembly Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. But the debate also has illuminated an internal struggle between two medical groups, and the fight over who really speaks for doctors in California.

The two groups–the California Medical Association and the California Association of Physician Groups–have come down on different sides of AB 374, authored by Democratic Assembly members Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, Patty Berg, D-Eureka, and Speaker Fabian N