ObamaCare & the AMA

In Romney’s August 30, 2012 speech he said “His (Obama’s) $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance ObamaCare will hurt today’s seniors and suppress innovation and jobs in medicine”. A March 2, 2009 USA Today article said: Because it takes 10 years to train a doctor, the nation will have a shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 doctors in 2020 unless action is taken soon. The predictions of a doctor shortage represent an abrupt about-face for the medical profession. For the past quarter-century, the American Medical Association (AMA) and other industry groups have predicted a glut of doctors and worked to limit the number of new physicians. "It didn't happen," says Harvard University medical professor David Blumentha…"In fact, we're all gainfully employed, earning good incomes, and new physicians are getting 2, 3 or 4 job offers." The nation now has about 800,000 active physicians, up from 500,000 20 years ago. They've been kept busy by a growing population and new procedures ranging from heart stents to liposuction. Even the AMA, the influential lobbying group for physicians, has abandoned its long-standing position that an "oversupply exists or is immediately expected." An October 1, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article talking about ObamaCare said: Overall, a majority of physicians (62.9%) supported public and private options for health care; only 27.3% supported offering private options only; there was also majority support for a public option among AMA members (62.2%). Primary care providers were the most likely to support a public option (65.2%); among the other specialty groups — those in fields that generally have less regular direct contact with patients, such as radiology, anesthesiology, and nuclear medicine were the least likely to support a public option, though 57.4% did. Practice owners were less likely than non-owners to support a public option (59.7% vs. 67.1%), but a majority still supported it. Overall 58.3% of respondents supported an expansion of Medicare to Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 years. A July 1, 2010 article in the Arizona Republic said: The AMA aggressively lobbied for many restrictions that require doctors to carry out operations that might be carried out by a cheaper workforce…According to the consensus of economists the regulation lobbied by the AMA has decreased the amount and quality of health care - the restrictions do not add to quality, they decrease the supply of care.

The AMA, after all the years lobbying against change in our health care system, supports ObamaCare. On September 7 a report found in one year $750 billion was lost in our health care system because of fraud and waste; as ObamaCare is closing the holes in the system it should pay for itself – all this debunks Romney’s accusations.