Yes, the AMA supported ObamaCare, but … less than 15% of practicing docs belong to the AMA … and “90% of the AMA’s funding comes via a government sanctioned monopoly whereby the AMA sells the billing codes upon which the entire health care system relies”
Vested interest? You decide …
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Excerpted from Forbes: Why Physicians Oppose The Health Care Reform Bill, 04.28.10
The medical establishment is not celebrating ObamaCare. In fact, the mood in exams rooms is downright morose.
A recently released poll of more than 2,000 physicians is alarming:
- 79% of physicians are less optimistic about medicine since the passage of health care reform.
- 53% indicate they will consider opting out of insurance plans with passage of the bill.
- 66% indicate that they will consider opting out of all government-run programs.
Many physicians may ultimately be faced with the choice of opting out of government insurance programs or going out of business.
A significant number of physicians are realizing they cannot stay in business — let alone remain independent — if they continue to accept artificially low government reimbursement rates.
The same reform bill that will provide “care for all” may drive away more physician caregivers than attract previously uninsured patients.
What a predicament that would be. Health care without active physician participation is no health care at all.
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How can physicians be so pessimistic ?
For one, the bill addresses none of the issues most consistently ranked by physicians as the most critical for lowering costs and improving access.
Tort reform, streamlining billing and payment, and fixing the flawed government formula for calculating physician reimbursement are given little, if any, serious attention.
Instead of fixing these issues, the government will be reducing physician reimbursement, just as the country is counting on even more physicians to be available.
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What of the much-touted American Medical Association’s support for the bill?
Less than 15% of practicing physicians are AMA members, so any AMA support is more a reflection of the AMA’s financial interests than what physicians in this country truly want. This is a situation that proved opportunistic to proponents of the bill but could prove painful for America’s health care system.
The AMA, which counts less than 10% of its $300 million dollars in revenue from physician membership dues (the rest comes from a government sanctioned monopoly whereby the AMA sells the billing codes upon which the entire health care system relies) had little choice but to endorse the bill, lest the government retract its exclusive license on billing codes.
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Full article:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/28/health-care-reform-physicians-opinions-contributors-daniel-palestrant_print.html
The Homa Files 