My Thoughts on AMA endorsement of the HR 3200

The American Medical Association’s recent endorsement of H.R. 3200 bill is very puzzling when considering the 6 key reform concepts listed on the AMA website. This bill, as outlined by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), will do the exact opposite; the CBO estimates it will cost $1.5 trillion over ten years. These costs do not even include all aspects of this bill. They readily admit, “We have not yet estimated the administrative costs to the federal government of implementing the specified policies, nor have we accounted for all the proposal’s likely effects on spending for other federal programs.”

It makes me wonder what behind-closed-door-deals the AMA leaders made with our President and congressional leaders. Considering the inefficiency of Medicare and Medicaid, I can only imagine what will occur when our government gets their hands on the controls of our healthcare. The Virginia-based Council for Affordable Health Insurance estimates that the administrative expenses of both programs in the last decade were 66 percent higher than those of private sector health insurance companies.

This bill not only will drive up the cost of healthcare, but will also be directly responsible for the conversion of individuals and families to the government (public) plan. According to the Lewin Group, nearly 120 million people will lose their private coverage. This will drive up the cost even more resulting in further reduction of payment to doctors and hospitals. Even scarier, President Obama’s request to have more executive power over the healthcare dollars without congressional oversight. This bill will also create at least 31 new federal programs, agencies, and commissions to oversee the government-run health insurance regime with the creation of at least one, or possibly more, czars to oversee the healthcare monster.

In 1964 the great debate was over a bill that created Medicare. It was going to cut cost and solve all the problems in healthcare. Looking at healthcare since 1964 to the present time, I would argue that the biggest problem with our system is Medicare; the waste, red tape, fraud, and rationing of medicine. It was argued at that time the creation of Medicare would lead us to socialized medicine. We are getting even closer if H.R. 3200 is passed.

So, again, I ask, why is the AMA supporting this bill? Is socialized medicine what the AMA wants? Remember that the evil spirit of profit-based medicine is where the pursuit of profit reduces waste and costs, yet gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and saves lives. America is where the rest of the world comes for treatment. Canada and England healthcare providers don’t pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If we become socialized like their systems, we will worry less about paying for healthcare because we would be stuck in the 2009-level of care forever. Government doesn’t innovate, individuals with freedom and ideas of making a profit do.

Lastly, I would challenge my peers on the delegation of the AMA, or any other individual for that matter, to consider that maybe we do not have a crisis concerning healthcare in America. This is the same argument that has been presented to our Nation before. In 1970, a young Massachusetts Senator, Edward M. Kennedy, stated that our population has a right to healthcare. The evidence is overwhelming that this right cannot be provided to most of the people in the United States. He further went on to describe a healthcare system that would surely collapse in the near future. So, let’s look at the healthcare collapse that happened because the problem was not corrected in 1970. Our life expectancy in 1970 was roughly 49 years of age, and now it is well over 70 years of age. Our medical and surgical advancements are significantly improving the quality of life for our patients with spin-off to the patients of socialized systems throughout the world. There is not one country with a single government run healthcare program that can come close to what we provide. We provide the best healthcare in the entire world and, despite the media description, our hospitals and doctors are not turning people away. As a matter of fact, most of the problems are with the regulations Medicare and Medicaid restricts in providing care.

In closing, Ronald Reagan, during a radio address July 6, 1977, presented the most important fact against this bill. “George Meany of the AFL-CIO is all out for a national health plan. But, how would he react if someone proposed that the skilled workers he represented would have to become government employees to practice their skill? Do any of us have the right to tell the members of any profession or trade they must become government employees in order to pursue their chosen work? Of course, we all want to insure that no one is denied needed medical care because of poverty, and we’ve done better than most countries to provide indigent care. But, would it not violate everything we believe in to adopt a system based on the idea that patients have a right to a doctor’s services without regard for his right to say how and on what terms those serves will be delivered.”



Considering this information, I am requesting my delegates reconsider their endorsement of this bill. I know the whole snowball effect gets overused, but it seems the conservatives in Congress in 1964 were correct when they signaled the alarm that the passage of Medicare would be a vehicle to lead this country to a more socialist form of government. I never thought my profession would be promoting conversion to that way of life.