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Obama speech on health care reform reveals the AMA as part of the problem
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Barrack Obama made his most comprehensive speech yet on the subject of healthcare reform, and unlike many of his speeches which have been vague and filled with politics and empty rhetoric ,this one was clear, to the point, and made few if any compromises to the audience to whom it was being delivered.
And it was delivered to an audience that was largely hostile to the idea of a government run universal system of healthcare existing side by side with private insurance. But Obama let them know this is exactly what he intended to bring out and he made no bones about the fact that he meant business.
But judging by the response Obama received to various parts of his speech it was clear that when it comes to the idea of a universal healthcare system, the only kind of reform that really matters, the AMA was part of the problem not the solution.
The fact that the AMA opposes a universal system is in itself suspicious. Why would they care? Why isn't the AMA's only concern about the quality of healthcare? Why would the AMA be concerned about how someone pays for healthcare?
The answer is that, like the insurance and drug companies, the AMA is as a doctors organization, is just as concerned about doctors healthy profits as it is healthy patients.
Healthcare costs have been spiraling out of control for years but the AMA never said a word. They didn't lead the fight to make healthcare universally affordable. They didn't express any concerns about the spiraling costs. Now that healthcare reform is a realty about to happen they are taking a position on what form of healthcare coverage is best for America. But do they really know? Or are they more concerned with the profits of their members?
The most telling moment of the speech came when President Obama talked about the present healthcare insurance system which provided incentives for doctors to perform unnecessary tests and give unnecessary treatments because they knew insurance would pay for it, padding the pockets of doctors and sending medical costs skyrocketing. But when he talked about a government paid for option that would end this practice the response from the members of the AMA in the audience was stony silence. You could have heard a pin drop. When Obama talked about why they became doctors in the first place and that it wasn't about money, that it wasn't about getting rich, there was the sound of one hand clapping.
Obama received a number of standing ovations from the AMA members present but on the very important issue of putting an end to unnecessary medical tests and treatments brought about because medical insurance pays for it, there was dead silence. There is every reason to believe that this is symptomatic of the passive collusion that exists between many doctors, insurance companies and drug companies that have driven up the cost of health care. And it's this collusion that healthcare reform is trying to break.
And when Obama stated emphatically that he did not support limits on medical malpractice suits because he believed it was unfair to the injured parties, the AMA doctors in the audience loudly booed. That's right, booed.
The one fault I found in Obama's speech,was his constant use of the word "affordable". The whole point of universal health care, the kind offered in other western countries is that healthcare is taken out of the realm of the "affordable". Healthcare should not be something one can afford or not afford. Despite the Republicans position that a doctor of orthopedic surgery should be treated the same way as Dr. Pepper, healthcare should not be based on market driven principles. It's as absurd as talking about affordable fire and police protection. Healthcare has become big business and that is the biggest part of the problem.
The government run health care plan Obama is now proposing which can co-exist with present insurance is the only way to guarantee health care for everyone and put healthy patients ahead of healthy profits. But judging from the reaction of the members of the AMA that isn't what they care about the most.
It was not that long ago, May 12th, when a group of doctors and nurses were ejected from a Senate hearing on healthcare for protesting that there were no witnesses advocating a universal single payer system, the kind they advocated. So the AMA does not speak for all doctors.
Universal health care is not up to the AMA. It's up to individual citizens who want a government paid for option to ignore the advice of the AMA and instead, take their health care into their own hands and call their member of congress in the morning.
It should be noted regarding the converage of Obama by the mainstream press and in particular CNN, that yesterday Suzanne Malveaux who has already shown herself to be the worst kind of Obama sycophant, reported that Obama's speech in front of the AMA was so successful, the audience, in her words "melted" in front of him. That's right, melted. The truth is Obama was actually booed during the speech and more than once, as I myself witnessed and was accurately reported elsewhere.
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