With health care reform advancing fitfully through Congress, President Barack Obama hit back on one of the key disputed issues in the debate.
“I know a lot of Americans who are satisfied with their health care right now are wondering what reform would mean for them,” Obama said. “Let me be clear: If you like your doctor or health care provider, you can keep them.”
Whether the government overhaul would come between satisfied consumers and their family doctor has emerged as a central argument in the increasingly partisan fight over reform.
Versions of the health care bill being worked on in Congress do not explicitly take physician choice away from consumers. But opponents of Obama’s public health care option are raising the prospect as an inevitable consequence of its passage.
“The disaster will be in the details,” said Donald Palmisano, a physician who is spokesman for the Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights.
Palmisano said the creation of a low-cost, government-run health plan would lead to employers “dumping” workers into the program, where they would face long waits and substandard care, and lose access to their preferred physicians.
It’s a potent argument. A recent New York Times poll found 77 percent of Americans like the benefits they currently receive. A Gallup poll this week found nearly 90 percent believe it is very important or extremely important to choose their own doctor or hospital.
Opponents of Clinton-era health care reform used physician choice as a powerful wedge to derail the effort in the 1990s, and Obama constantly reiterates the point that his plan would not separate consumers from their doctors.
Even so, proving a negative is a major challenge, particularly in the heated, political sound-bite war that health care reform is shaping up to be.
Obama this week has become notably more assertive in pushing Congress to act. But his challenge is multifaceted, because he is also trying to steady balky Democrats alarmed about the bill’s $1 trillion price tag.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs noted that Obama has invited moderate Democrats to the White House to discuss their worries about the legislation, and will continue direct appeals to get it done.
“We understand what some of those concerns are,” Gibbs said. “This is a process that is going to unfold.”
The White House has expressed frustration at the scorekeeping and daily tracking on the reform effort, saying debate of the relevant issues is being obscured by typical Washington politics.
At the same time, the administration has done little to build bipartisan compromise on health care reform, dismissing the concerns of opponents as political posturing.
In a calculated bit of political theater, Obama appeared in the Rose Garden on Wednesday with nurses, urging Congress to “buck up” and get reform done soon.
“The naysayers and cynics still doubt that we can do this,” Obama said. “Thanks to the work of key committees in Congress, we’re now closer to the goal of health care reform than we’ve ever been.”
