AMA President Calls For Congress' Insurance Plan For All Uninsured Americans

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While CNN reports that the American Medical Association's new president, J. James Rohack, is open to a government-funded health insurance option, others report that the system the AMA now endorses is not a public plan, but the heavily managed private plan that federal employees participate in.

He "told CNN the AMA supports an 'American model' that includes both 'a private system and a public system, working together.' In May, the AMA told a Senate committee it did not support a government-sponsored public health insurance option."

"Rohack, who recently became AMA president, suggested Wednesday that the (Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan) available to Congress members and other federal employees could be expanded as a public option. That would avoid having to create a new program from scratch, he said. 'If it's good enough for Congress, why shouldn't it be good enough for individuals who don't have health insurance provided by their employers?' Rohack said" (7/1).

But TPMDC reported Wednesday that Rohack's comments aren't an endorsement of a public plan at all: "He's endorsing a system of managed competition that provides members of Congress and other federal employees a choice of heavily regulated private insurance plans. In the FEHBP, the government is not the insurance provider as it would be in the case of a public option--and that's a substantial difference" (Beutler, 7/1).

Daily KOS: "(I)f you listen closely to Rohack, he studiously avoids using the word 'Public' in response to his questioners or in his own description of the AMA's 'new' (not) position" (Wbramh, 7/1).

This information was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at kaiserhealthnews.org.

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