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AMA's support for health reform may be in doubt

October 16, 2009 — 10:26am ET | By Anne Zieger
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Senate Finance Committee
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American Medical Association (AMA)

All along, the AMA's support for health reform has been a bit of a touch-and-go thing, with leaders hoping to work out some sort of compromise between the different factions within its 250,000 member physicians. 

Of late, the group seemed to have reached some sort of consensus which put it squarely behind reform efforts. Now, however, that fragile coalition seems to be in doubt with the approval of a plan by the Senate Finance Committee.

AMA watchers say that while the association has a range of public policy goals here, its main goal is convincing Congress to halt cuts in Medicare that have been pending for a dozen years. With Medicare making up nearly one-third of physicians' income, on average, this is a very big issue.

The Senate Finance Committee version of the bill, however, holds off Medicare cuts for just one year, at a cost of about $10 billion, a striking contrast to House bills devoting $228 billion to keeping Medicare cuts from happening for at least a decade. To keep the AMA's support, it seems likely that the Senate's version of the bill just won't cut it.

Now, the question is whether reform can pass at all if the AMA backs off from its support. This could be down to the wire, folks.

To learn more about this debate:
- read this Washington Post piece

Related Articles:
AMA opposes government-backed healthcare
The discussion continues: Are physician salaries key to health reform?
Obama administration points to Cleveland Clinic as reform model

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By Joseph | Posted 3:41pm | October 16, 2009

First: The AMA's membership is most certainly not 250,000. The real number is far below 200,000. (Or less than 20% of all physicians in the US. Obviously 80% of physicians do not agree with, support, or see the value of AMA membership.)

Which leads to point number two ---

Second: The AMA does not represent, nor do they speak for, all physicians. They speak only for their members, which are specialists, not primary care physicians.

And that is exactly what made POTUS's "photo op" with the AMA a few weeks ago so surreal and ridiculous. He, and they, are far off base on the means to achieve health reform. And shame on the media for not scratching the surface to uncover the facts.

By Anonymous | Posted 9:45am | November 3, 2009

You are so right.
My question for the House, the Senate and President Obamaa is why do they feel a total overhaul of the current healthcare system is the only way to fix it?
If there is so much waste, abuse and fraud in the Medicare/Medicaid system that it will almost "pay" for the cost of insuring those that currently do not have insurance, WHY NOT ELIMINATE THAT FIRST----Then tackle the real problems in the current system?????
Make healthcare available across state lines, address torte reform and stop politicians from passing legislation that is loaded with pork and so many pages long that none of them read what they are passing!!!!
There are so many ways to address the issues and none of them include a "government option". Government involvement always means a bureaucratic nightmare. Examples: Medicare, Medicaid and the Postal system, which are all losing money hand over fist. And what makes anyone think that they, (the government), can successfully run the entire healthcare system?
And you are sooooo right!
SHAME ON THE MEDIA! BUT, THEN, MOST OF THE MEDIA ARE SO TOTALLY IN AWE OF THE CURRENT CONGRESS AND ADMINISTRATION THEY WALK AROUND WITH BLINDERS ON.
THE GOVERNMENT IS STARTING TO TAKE OVER PRIVATE BUSINESSES AND IT'S TIME FOR CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY TO WAKE UP BEFORE THEY LOSE ALL OF THEIR FREEDOMS!
THOMAS JEFFERSON ONCE SAID "A GOVERNMENT BIG ENOUGH TO GIVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT, IS BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE."
Those are very good words to keep in mind.
And also remember that Obama once said we must "share the wealth".
Think carefully about just what "wealth" is.
Grade school mathmatics will tell you that if the government is going to "provide" all these services, the money must come from somewhere and there are not enough "wealthy" people around to cover trillions and trillions of dollars in federal spending. It will come out of EVERYONES' pockets.
In closing. READ THE BILLS! DON'T TAKE ANY POLITICIANS' WORD FOR WHAT IS IN THEM. FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!!!!!!!

By Anonymous | Posted 10:04am | November 3, 2009

The corrected quote from Thomas Jefferson is: "A government that is big enough to give you everything you want, is STRONG enough to take everthing you have".
Used big instead of Strong.
My bad...... sorry.

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