Next week President Obama will become the first commander in chief to speak directly to the doctors of the American Medical Association since Ronald Reagan in 1983.
The AMA had more members and a lot more clout in Reagan’s day. Despite the rise of specialty medical societies, the AMA remains the most powerful trade group for doctors. So Obama will take his health-reform roadshow to the AMA’s 158th annual meeting in Chicago on Monday.
What’s he going to say? Well, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday that Obama will tell the doctors that the current health care system is “unsustainable” and that reform needs to happen now. Obama is expected to explain what his plan for health care will mean for patients and their doctors. That last bit could prove particularly interesting.
The AMA has pledged publicly to support Obama’s plan by reducing wasteful medical procedures, such as unnecessary surgery for back pain and many Cesarean sections. But behind the scenes, the AMA has been fighting against a government-provided insurance option supported by Obama for universal coverage.
As AHCJ president Trudy Lieberman asked in a recent blog post, “Is this the same old AMA opposing anything that even remotely looks, smells, or quacks like an entrée to national health insurance?” Journalists, she wrote, “should make it their business to find out.”
Update
In response to a New York Times story on AMA’s opposition to a public plan, AMA President Nancy H. Nielsen said in a statement that the group would consider “variations of a public plan that are currently under discussion in Congress.”
