Bob Graham is executive editor at Insurance & Financial Advisor and IFAwebnews.com.
The American Medical Association, whose support of the federal health reform law was key to its passage, may withdraw its support of the law.
The loss of the AMA’s support could be a huge blow to the law, which faces no fewer than 20 federal court challenges. And President Obama, whose re-election efforts would suffer greatly with the erosion of support for his signature piece of legislation.
Doctors face a bitter pill. At its annual policy-making meeting in Chicago last weekend, the AMA admitted to the loss of about 12,000 of its members, about 5%, largely because of its support of the health reform law.
During the conference, the group’s House of Delegates debated its position supporting the individual mandate for two hours, according to the Chicago Tribune. The individual mandate forces every American to either buy health insurance or pay a fine, starting in January 2014, when health exchanges come online. Without the individual mandate, health insurers say the risk pool will be too small to support the system, meaning much higher premiums – if the system could work at all.
Some members opposing the AMA’s endorsement of so-called ObamaCare say doctors shouldn’t insert themselves into the debate over who gets care and how it’s paid for. They should be treating patients, however they reach them at hospitals, doctors offices and other centers.
The law “regulating the individual purchase of health insurance will likely undermine the innovations and improvements in health care financing that can evolve in a free market,” said a resolution introduced at the AMA meeting by three national surgery groups, including the American Society of General Surgeons and six state delegations of doctors, The critics said in the resolution that the AMA should “regard the purchase of health insurance to be a matter of individual responsibility to be encouraged by the use of tax incentives and other noncompulsory measures.”
The last sentence echoes the call of some Republicans, who have so far failed in their attempts to kill the law. Polls continue to show flagging public support for the law. The courts seem to be circling; yet the Supreme Court has put off intervention, hoping, possibly, that other means will kill the bill, negating its need to rule.
Doctors have a huge influence in the health care system, if for no other reason than they interact with almost every participant. Losing their support may ignite others to oppose the law more vigorously, and that could lead to its ultimate death.
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