The Embarrassing Matter of the AMA’s Investment in Tobacco Stocks

In 1979, the AMA’s Resident Physician Section pointed out to the organization’s leadership that the association’s retirement fund owned $1.4 million in tobacco stocks. After the AMA House of Delegates’ vote in 1981 to retain its tobacco stocks led to public condemnation and ridicule of the AMA, the AMA quietly divested the stocks. However, in 1997 Physician’s Weekly pointed out that the AMA’s own employees’ 401(k) plan still invested in tobacco companies.