President Barack Obama made a mostly economic argument to the nation’s physicians for overhauling health care, but doctors said the pitch offered too little substance.
In a speech before the American Medical Association in Chicago about his evolving health care proposal, Obama “did what he has done in the course of his presidency, which is go to people who do not necessarily agree with him 100 percent and say these are the things that are important and we can work things out,” said Julius Hobson, a former lobbyist for the American Medical Association who is now a senior policy adviser at Bryan Cave LLP.
Obama told the country’s largest doctors organization that health care reform was imperative because its rising cost is “a threat to our economy” and “a ticking time bomb for the federal budget.”
But the AMA has come out against Obama’s proposal to create a government-run health insurance provider that would compete against private insurers, saying it would “threaten patient choice” by putting private insurance companies out of business.
Members of the association said after the speech that while they appreciated Obama’s appearance, he did not deliver the specifics they need to decide whether to back it.
“It would have had more meaning to the physicians if he had talked about alternative ways to get rid of junk lawsuits, for instance,” said former American Medical Association President Donald J. Palmisano, who attended the speech.
Palmisano and other doctors have for years been clamoring for caps on malpractice suits. Obama in his speech threw cold water on any notion that his health care bill would include them, however, and would only promise to “explore a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first, how to let doctors focus on practicing medicine and how to encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines.”
Obama pushed his proposal for a government-run option, saying doctors’ fears of being paid Medicare rates, which are lower than those paid by private insurers, “can be overcome,” though he provided no specifics.
Palmisano said the belief among many doctors is that the more the government gets involved in health care, the more it will be rationed.
“We are saying there is a solution,” Palmisano said. “Use tax credits, market enhancements, let people open health savings accounts, let people own the policy.”
Obama delivered the speech as lawmakers huddled over three main Democratic health care proposals floating around Congress, one of which he hopes to have on his desk to sign by October.
Senate Republicans threw their own plan into the mix Monday, introducing legislation aimed at preventing rationed care.
That bill, introduced by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., would bar the government from denying coverage to patients on the basis of cost.
“Whatever else we think needs to be done. … I think we can all agree it should not result in health care rationing in the process,” Kyl said.
