AMA Group Stops Short of Support for Public Option
By Kari Lydersen
The American Medical Association House of Delegates voted against officially voicing support for a public health insurance option at the end of their annual meeting in Chicago Wednesday morning. Debate about whether and how to endorse a public option had flourished both in formal sessions and throughout hotel hallways since Obama's warmly received address Monday morning.
A committee drafted a resolution announcing support of a public option, but in debate among the 500-plus delegates Tuesday evening that language was removed and replaced with support for unspecified health care reform. Wednesday morning brought an amendment to revert to the original resolution supporting a public option, and members eager to wrap up debate and close the issue voted 55 percent in favor of adopting that language.
But then Nancy H. Nielsen, who had been president of the AMA until inauguration of the new president the previous night, took the lectern to oppose a declaration of support for a public option.
"I do believe when you say you support public option alternatives, it means you support one side," she said. "I'm a little worried about this."
Former AMA president Daniel H. Johnson Jr., a Louisiana radiologist, asked the group to reconsider and introduced a new amendment substituting "health system reform." After a few minutes of discussion, the amendment was adopted with few dissenters.
The final resolution reads: "The AMA supports health system reform alternatives consistent with principles of pluralism, freedom of choice, freedom of practice and universal access for patients."
Later Nielsen called the resolution "the culmination of days of deliberations and thoughtful consideration. It got a little wild at the end with a few parliamentary maneuvers."
"What everyone agreed on, where there was no debate, is America's doctors want to get to the goal of all Americans having affordable health coverage," she added. "The point of debate was how best to convey that at a time there are many balls in the air and there will be many balls in the air in terms of proposals we haven't even seen yet. It's very clear people didn't want to close the door by putting a label on some alternatives that meant different things to different people. The AMA did not close doors. The AMA said we will evaluate all alternatives in keeping with our principles."
Many of the delegates remain sharply divided in their own views of a public option. Before the vote Florida neurosurgeon Troy M. Tippett told the delegates, "Sometimes we just have to say no," advising doctors to think of members of Congress as their children or grandchildren when discussing medical policy, repeating their message time and again. "I am confident when our leadership goes to Washington they will lay down our longstanding principles, they will not be swayed by outside forces and they will be prepared to say no on behalf of our patients and physicians."
Public option supporters told their colleagues failing to endorse it would make the AMA part of the problem rather than the solution. A New Mexico doctor called a public option crucial to his state where almost one in four people are uninsured; and he said most young physicians back a public option.
After the final vote, supporters and opponents said they were satisfied with the lack of an explicit endorsement since the administration's plans for a public option are still relatively vague.
"I absolutely support the concept of a public option that offers high quality, affordable access for people not in existing government programs," said Arvind Goyal, a South Barrington, Ill., public health specialist. "We loved President Obama's speech, and many people probably changed their minds based on what we heard. But without specifics we couldn't vote on it. Would you sign up for a loan without seeing the terms in writing? Since it isn't on the table yet, this was the only responsible approach that would serve our communities and the profession. It does not tie us to some unknown."
Mary Gayle Armstrong, a Mississippi family medicine practitioner, agreed.
"The AMA is on board with the president," she said. "We want to work with the president and his administration. The system is broken and we want a better system for our patients. But we don't have a clear definition of what a public option is at this point, so at this point it is fair to support the concept of coverage for everyone. We don't want to be boxed into anything."
By
Paul Volpe
|
June 17, 2009; 3:16 PM ET
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Health Reform
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Posted by: Garak | June 17, 2009 4:21 PM | Report abuse
A boondoggle if there ever was one. When every federal employee, including elected officials, such as, president, senator, representative, etc., has to sign on for the same care that Obama wants the "sheep" to sign on for, then, I might, just might, say, "If the poliburo thinks it's good enough for them, then, it's good enough for the rest of us." Yeah, right. What are the chances that will ever happen.
Posted by: marine2211 | June 17, 2009 4:50 PM | Report abuse
Where's the review of the Daschle - Mitchell - Dole - Baker proposal??
Maybe it's too tough for Mss. Montgomery, Murray and Connolly, certainly too tough for Mr. Mufson -- there are NUMBERs.
Where's the beef?
Posted by: AppDev | June 17, 2009 4:52 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
If we can have socialized farming, socialized professional sports, socialized flood insurance, socialized pharmaceutical and medical research, socialized banking, socialized broadcasting (public spectrum giveaways), socialized homeowners insurance (Citizens in Florida) and socialized airlines (guess who builds airports), then we can have socialized medicine.
Everyone else gets socialism. I want mine. I'm as deserving as all the others. I'll back off when ALL the others end their socialism. And not a moment sooner.