AMA Backs House’s Health Care Bill
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Health CarePreviously the American Medical Association came out strong against any sort of public plan, but then Obama talked to them and now they seem to be falling in line.
Now, I’m under no illusions that Obama swayed them to the point that they’re going against their own best interests, but something happened in the last month to make them do a 360 and give a thumbs up to a public plan.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, I am writing to express our appreciation and support for H.R. 3200, the ‘America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,’” says Dr. Michael Maves, the AMA’s executive vice president and CEO.“This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform. We urge members of the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means Committees to favorably report H.R. 3200 for consideration by the full House.”
Maves concludes, “The AMA looks forward to further constructive dialogue during the committee mark-up process. We pledge to work with the House committees and leadership to build support for passage of health reform legislation to expand access to high quality, affordable health care for all Americans.”
And here are some of their reasons for supporting it…
- Promises to extend coverage to all Americans through health insurance market reforms;
- Provides consumers with a choice of plans through a health insurance exchange;
- Includes essential health insurance reforms such as eliminating coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions;
- Recognizes that fundamental Medicare reforms, including repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula, are essential to the success of broader health system reforms;
- Encourages chronic disease management and care coordination through additional funding for primary care services, without imposing offsetting payment reductions on specialty care;
- Addresses growing physician workforce concerns;
- Strengthens the Medicaid program;
- Requires individuals to have health insurance, and provides premium assistance to those who cannot afford it;
- Includes prevention and wellness initiatives designed to keep Americans healthy;
- Makes needed improvements to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative that will enable greater participation by physicians; and
- Initiates significant payment and delivery reforms by encouraging participation in new models such as accountable care organizations and the patient-centered medical home.
The most significant line in there is “Provides consumers with a choice of plans through a health insurance exchange.” That’s a biggie, because while consumers are offered choices, they’re still picking between private and public. At least if I understand the House bill correctly.
Still, with all this support from outside groups, will any Republican back this bill or the Senate’s version?
More as it develops…
This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 and is filed under Health Care. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 17th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Don’t you mean 180 instead of 360? As for AMA and insurers and other interest groups “supporting” a bill that affects them, I’m almost always against it since the bill usually ends up watered down, useless or abused (or worst, all 3). I do understand they’re constituents and considered “experts” by most people, but they’re the problem and hurdle to concise health care coverage.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
They will be picking for a while, until their employer dumps their private plan to cut costs, or until the premiums on private insurance skyrocket as more and more people leave private insurance join the taxpayer-subsidized plan.
Eventually, the only people who will be able to afford to choose between public and private will be the rich, and they of course will always choose the superior private care. The quality gap between the rich and poor will increase in this country and it will all be the fault of people who support this bill.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
ADDENDUM:
HA! Its so interesting that you would point out that individual choice for health insurance is important for Americans, because as it turns out, the current House bill bans individual private insurance. From Investors Business Daily:
Lets hope this bill goes down in flames. The solution to the health care crisis is individual private insurance. The first thing we need to do is decouple insurance from employment.
July 18th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Jimmy, sorry to burst that particular bubble, but that clause applies only to grandfathered plans that don’t meet the new-plan-issue criteria. It doesn’t ban all individual private insurance, it bans new-policy enrollment and issuance of plans that do not meet the standards.
That would still kill off those older plans by slow strangulation, so the claim that you could keep your previous plan is pretty damn weak, if said plan is non-conforming. But you would still be free to buy individual conforming plans from private carriers. Of course, THOSE plans would have to compete against the taxpayer-subsidized public plan, which would lead to more slow strangulation of private plans….
The overall claim that the scheme of the current House bill would lead to choking off most private plans and eventually lead to single-payer appears valid to me. The Swiss and Danes have reasonably well-functioning systems that do NOT include a “public plan” but DO include standard base criteria for all plans AND mandatory purchase, with plans competing for customers and low-income subsidization, and they seem to do OK.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
[...] gotten a real raise in over 1o years); Mr. Obama tells Congress to get moving; at least the AMA likes this House proposal; Maha Barbara explains a Cato Institute idea; John Aravosis on health insurance realities you may [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
From Obama’s website it states: “President Obama is committed to enacting comprehensive health reform this year that lowers costs”. How does it lower costs to have no competition? I heard a doctor the other day say some of the rules of medicare are ingnorant. Like, the one that won’t allow a Sr. Citizen to receive IV fluids at home under the supervision of a nurse. They must be in the hospital–which is more costly. If health care is going to be reformed, start with the basics and lower costs by looking at the wasted monies first. When I’m trying to lower my personal budget, that’s what I do—look for the waste and how it can be trimmed.