RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events A right to Health Care

...The bill's endorsement by the doctors' and seniors' lobby groups -- in addition to support announced by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network -- helps counter mounting opposition among employer groups that are stepping up their advertising campaign against the bill.

The AARP has been pushing for a health overhaul for more than a year, but it had withheld a formal endorsement of any of the healthcare bills being developed by congressional Democrats. On Thursday, AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said the group saw the House Democratic bill as the most promising proposal.

"We can say with confidence that it meets our priorities for protecting Medicare, providing more affordable insurance for 50- to 64-year-olds and reforming our healthcare system," she said at the group's Washington headquarters.

The group plans to promote the bill to its 40 million members and other Americans through publications, advertising and e-mails to its activists.

The AMA's endorsement had been thrown in question when Congress delayed action on a related measure that is the group's top priority -- a bill to cancel a scheduled cut in Medicare payment rates to doctors. But Democratic leaders said that issue would be addressed later this year.

In announcing the group's endorsement Thursday, AMA President J. James Rohack said, "The time to make health system reform a reality is now."

He added that the measure "is not the perfect bill . . . but it goes a long way toward expanding access to high-quality affordable health coverage for all Americans."

The AMA's support comes ahead of a crucial policymaking meeting of its House of Delegates in Houston that begins Saturday. The organization is being asked by some constituencies, at the eleventh hour, to back away from supporting healthcare reform.

"These bills go far beyond what is necessary to fix what is broken with our healthcare system, and they grant the federal government considerable new powers and authority, which could ultimately amount to a complete government takeover of healthcare, and which is anathema to doctors and patients," reads a resolution introduced by three associations of surgeons.

The AMA, which represents a quarter of a million physicians, thinks the House bill backs goals supported by the majority of its members because doctors will have a choice on whether to participate in a government-run insurance plan, the so-called public option. In addition, the AMA has said the rates paid to doctors under that plan are going to be better than those they receive from the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly, which is also key to the group's support.
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