Matt, if you look into the history of the AMA and how they came to this disease pronouncement, you will see AA writ large. Look for Marty Mann, and her financial backer, someone named R. Brinkley Smithers, owner and operator of a rehab facility who stood to benefit dramatically from health insurance dollars that would flow into his organization, and others like it, as a direct result of their lobbying of the AMA. What you will not see is any medical or scientific evidence that this pronouncement has any basis in fact.
I agree that successful treatment of chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy requires life long efforts and medical assistance for their successful management. These are not the same as addiction, something that is not amenable to medical intervention.
And no, doctors do not agree that this is a disease. In fact,
A survey of over 88,000 physicians in the U.S. found that "Only 49% of the physicians characterized alcoholism as a disease." Over 75% believed that the major causes of alcoholism are "personality and emotional problems."
Jones, R.W., and Helrich, A.R. Treatment of alcoholism by physicians in private practice: a national survey. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1972, 33(1), 117.
It is significant that a survey of doctors attending an annual conference of the the International Doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous (IDAA) found that 80% believed that alcoholism is simply bad behavior - - not a disease.
Hobbs, Thomas R. Managing alcoholism as a disease. Physician's News Digest, 1998 (February), p. 1.