In addition to Big Insurance, Big Business and others who profit from illness and healthcare rations, one enemy especially stands out because he/she's also a needed friend and ally. Really...??
The American Medical Association opposes a public health plan because it would threaten their profits. They opposed the creation of Medicare in 1965, too. Shame, shame on them, as Medicare is the most effective public health plan of all time and is responsible for lifting our country out of unequal illness and poverty patterns, and prolonging the quantity and quality of life in the US in equitable ways. According to the NYTimes the other day,
"The A.M.A., with about 250,000 members, is America’s largest physician organization. While committed to the goal of affordable health insurance for all, the association had said in a general statement of principles that health services should be “provided through private markets, as they are currently.” It is now reacting, for the first time, to specific legislative proposals being drafted by Congress."
You bet they are.That's nice, but the current market-based system doesn't work for anyone who is not a doc.
Let me be more specific....our absence of a primary care infrastructure - itself a product of "private markets, as they are currently" - makes people sick, at much profit to treatment providers like medical specialists and high-end medical technology designed for over-killing (literally).
Let's be clear about who the AMA serves - it ain't primary care docs, but specialists. And they don't want the change we need in health care reform.
Nothing is simple about the politics of US health care, and our docs shouldn't be contributing to this profitable confusion. Tell the AMA (1-800-621-8335) - and Sen. Bingaman - how you feel about the status quo "private market" system that fails us all in fixable ways.
Be strong,
Terry
0 comments:
Post a Comment