Is civil war brewing within the AMA? There are claims the fighting has already begun.

Last year, the Victorian branch began offering what, on the surface, looked benign.  This was its “associate” membership package to encourage doctors to join.

The selling point was that it was cheap — 40% less than the fee for full AMA membership.

But the reason it was cheap was because doctors would only be members of the Victorian AMA, with nothing going to pay for the operations of the federal AMA in Canberra.