The federal branch of the AMA is back to operating at a profit, following several years of small losses.
The AMA has posted a $2.5 million profit for the 2024 calendar year, its first since 2021, owing to a transfer of assets from Tasmania and the reintroduction of fees from WA.
In both 2022 and 2023, the federal branch of the association made a loss of about $0.9m.
According to its annual report, which was released last week, around 55% of the federal AMA’s $23.8m comprehensive income comes from membership subscriptions, which are passed along by the individual state and territory branches.
All told, that would put the total income from memberships at about $13.09m.
In terms of monetary value alone, this is relatively modest compared to similar peaks operating in the healthcare space. In the 2024 financial year, for instance, the RACGP brought in about $40m from memberships alone.
It was a turbulent year for the AMA, but one which ultimately worked out in its favour.
The AMA credited its bump in income for 2024 to three factors: changes in the fair value of several long-term investments, transfer of assets from Tasmania following its absorption as a branch of the federal AMA and the resumption of remittance of member subscriptions from WA.
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Between February and October 2024, 5000 AMA WA members were briefly kicked out of the federation following a years-long dispute about how much the state AMA should be contributing in membership fees.
AMA WA had been withholding its share of federal membership subscriptions since late 2022, which AMA federal has previously said partially accounted for the small losses in 2022 and 2023.
Amid the stoush with AMA WA last year, the federal AMA forged ahead with several constitutional changes, one of which allowed it to establish state-based branches for the first time.
Traditionally, each state or territory AMA is an independent entity.
The AMAs in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia all expressed concern that allowing the federal body to establish its own state branches could effectively sideline the states.
Following the constitutional changes, AMA Tasmania was subsumed by the federal AMA, bringing its assets with it.
This move was supported by about 96% of AMA Tasmania members.
In terms of how it spent money, the biggest chunk of change from the federal AMA – about 40% – went toward advocacy and policy, followed by publications at 19% and database services at 14%.
