A.M.A. Endorses House Health Care Reform Plan

This is a bit surprising, and I hope my skepticism is proven to be baseless, but the American Medical Association claims to support the House Tri-Committee plan, which seems to be one of the more sane and workable of all the proposals that have been floated.

Has the A.M.A. seen the writing on the wall and come to understand that unless radical reform occurs, the entire health care system will collapse, taking them out in the process? Or did it become apparent that their initial opposition placed them on the wrong side of popular opinion, as the media and bloggers dissected each press release and televised interview with a razor-sharp scalpel, to the point where it was plain to see that the cure was no longer worse than the disease?

Some pundits are opining that the A.M.A. is using their endorsement as a quid pro quo in hopes of increasing Medicare reimbursements and to ensure that any public insurance option doesn't use Medicare rates as the baseline for compensating doctors and providers going forward. Time will tell if that played a role in their decision.

Regardless of what brought the A.M.A. to rethink their position on health care reform, their support of H.R. 3200 is good news for the movement, and hopefully another step toward getting Americans available, affordable health coverage while allowing doctors and medical practitioners to do what they like to do - care for their patients, keep them healthy, and spend time on treatment and prevention instead of paperwork.

I know the A.M.A. checks in here from time to time, both live and with their bot crawler, so perhaps they'll comment again, like they did when I first complained about their position. We'd love to hear more about their support.

Image via Takomabibelot on flickr