Regarding “AMA backs healthcare reform bill”:
This is reason enough to drop out of the American Medical Association if you belong, or refuse to join if you don't. How can an organization representing such a small percentage of physicians attempt to speak for the majority of physicians who are against this bill?
Diane S. Myers
East Louisville PediatricsLouisvilleAs I read the endorsement from the American Medical Association, I am not sure what is behind this. It is all well and good to think that qualifying this will make it more palatable to the many physicians who think this legislation has anything to do with delivering better health care to Americans. If all we wanted to do was cover more people, then the bill should have done just that, but in American legislation today, simple is never enough, it has to be far reaching and vague so as to change it when convenient. Want to improve healthcare, make primary care more attractive, allow insurance companies to compete across state lines and change the misplaced payment methods for physicians.
Waste is rampant, but little in this legislation really goes to the heart of this estimated $600 billion. Once the bill is passed, the AMA, the American Osteopathic Association and any other medical society will have less ground to stand on when looking for the necessary changes that really need to be made. It is a great thing to say we are going to cover millions more, but at what price? Perhaps if the medical associations were more apt to really listen to a majority of physicians—many of whom have stuck their heads in the sand, sadly—then the membership numbers would grow. This would really put some political power behind medicine.
Dr. Randy Bickle
President and medical directorOlympia Medical ServicesLivonia, Mich.I guess that it really should not surprise me. The problem with our healthcare system has nothing to do with the insurance companies. We have a delivery system that is grossly inefficiently managed and run by the doctors who make up the AMA. That is where the problem is. By supporting the healthcare initiative, they, once again, skip out of having to address the real issue with healthcare. They may be able to delay the inevitable, but they certainly will not be able to prevent it.
Dave Kievet
Group President, California OperationsBoldt Co.Sacramento, Calif.Apparently AMA President J. James Rohack is receiving an ambassadorship appointment in the near future.
Barbara Patton
Birmingham, Ala.What a mistake!
John S. Carroll
PrincipalCardiac PartnersTucson, Ariz.
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