President Obama was in Chicago today speaking at the American Medical Association, in an effort to enlist physicians in his health care reform movement. Last Week the AMA formally announced opposition to any plan which forces doctors to accept patients at Medicare reimbursement rates. Obama promised his Public option plan would pay more than Medicare [the Kennedy bill calls for 110% of Medicare rates] and promised he is not trying to achieve government run health care in the United States.
Obama also said he wants to "scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care," but he spoke out against caps on jury awards for medical malpractice. Although the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will begin marking up Senator Kennedy's draft measure Wednesday, nobody has yet come close to explaining how the federal government is going to raise the $100 billion a year these proposals will cost.
Obama also said he wants to "scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care," but he spoke out against caps on jury awards for medical malpractice. Although the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will begin marking up Senator Kennedy's draft measure Wednesday, nobody has yet come close to explaining how the federal government is going to raise the $100 billion a year these proposals will cost.
