AMA Endorses Public Option, Blue Dogs Endorse GOP and Corporate CEOs (PLUS: Why we need reform -- a harrowing story)

Yesterday the dependably conservative AMA came out in favor of the House compromise on health care reform. It doesn't include single payer but the robust public option it does include seems like the best deal working families can expect from a political system as corrupted by corporate money as ours is. In a letter to Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the AMA's Michael Maves pledged to work with the House leadership to help build support for the bill with the public. (Presumably that would mean combatting Republican and Blue Dog efforts to diminish the 70-80% support for the public option already showing up in all polling on the subject.) Maves letter:

Dear Chairman Rangel,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, I am writing to express our appreciation and support for H.R. 3200, the “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.” This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform. We urge members of the House Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means Committees to favorably report H.R. 3200 for consideration by the full House.

In particular, we are pleased that the bill:

• Promises to extend coverage to all Americans through health insurance market reforms;

• Provides consumers with a choice of plans through a health insurance exchange;

• Includes essential health insurance reforms such as eliminating coverage denials based on pre-existing conditions;

• Recognizes that fundamental Medicare reforms, including repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula, are essential to the success of broader health system reforms;

• Encourages chronic disease management and care coordination through additional funding for primary care services, without imposing offsetting payment reductions on specialty care;

• Addresses growing physician workforce concerns;

• Strengthens the Medicaid program;

• Requires individuals to have health insurance, and provides premium assistance to those who cannot afford it;

• Includes prevention and wellness initiatives designed to keep Americans healthy;

• Makes needed improvements to the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative that will enable greater participation by physicians; and

• Initiates significant payment and delivery reforms by encouraging participation in new models such as accountable care organizations and the patient-centered medical home.

The AMA looks forward to further constructive dialogue during the committee mark-up process. We pledge to work with the House committees and leadership to build support for passage of health reform legislation to expand access to high quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

This year, the AMA wants the debate in Washington to conclude with real, long overdue results that will improve the health of America’s patients.

President Obama seemed satisfied with the AMA response to the House bill and issued a brief, clear statement: "I am grateful that the doctors of the AMA have chosen to support health insurance reform that will lower costs, expand coverage, and assure choice and quality health care for all Americans. Along with the nation’s nurses, these doctors are joining the chorus of Americans who know that the time to reform what is broken about our health care system is now."

The Medical-Industrial Complex and the Insurance Industry will now attempt to counter this with a fake "bipartisan compromise" that will be presented by two of the Senate's worst corporate shills, Max Baucus (DLC-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA). The fractured Blue Dog caucus in the House has been trying to get a consensus among its reactionary members to oppose health care reform but has been unable to persuade Blue Dogs from blue-leaning districts to go along with their malevolent intentions. Blue Dogs are afraid of Democrats. Yesterday reactionary Democrats struck hard-- joining with Republicans to sabotage working families' efforts to be able to organize unions. This isn't one any decent American should ever forget.

In Florida's Polk County it will be interesting to see if Democrats nominate a real Democrat, progressive Navy vet Doug Tudor, or a slimy corporate Blue Dog, Lori Edwards, to replace Adam Putnam, one of Florida's most anti-family elected representatives, who is retiring from Congress to run for State Agricultural Commissioner. We're asking progressives to consider donating to Doug's ActBlue page as a way of sending the DCCC a message that we want them to support Democrats, not gussied up Republicans calling themselves Democrats.


WHY DO WE NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM?
ASK OUR COLLEAGUE MARTIN BOSWORTH

As wise men from Aesop to Frank Lutz have known, people like stories. Spinmeister Lutz's road map for maintaining the health care status quo stressed the importance of personal stories -- you know, stories of how wicked socialist medicine has led to personal tragedies in commie-rat-infested countries that have dabbled in it.

Of course the real horror stories are those of people who have victimized or simply shut out of the American health care system -- or both. Many of you are probably familiar with our colleague Martin Bosworth, of Boztopia.com and many other venues, one of the clearer-headed and more knowledgeable folks we know. Yesterday Martin told a story that had us on the edge of our chair, about suddenly finding himself in the grip of --

a sudden, mysterious, and incredibly painful ailment that I thought was going to kill me. I ended up going to the hospital to get treatment after exhausting all other options, and am now on the hook for several thousand dollars’ worth of medical bills, because I had the bad luck to fall ill right in the void between insurance plans.

The story has a much happier ending than one dreaded. Martin is feeling much better now, thank you, even though the mysterious whatever-it-was was never diagnosed, and he's also getting various kinds of help on the financial front. And as he wrote in a note:

If nothing else, I feel like this whole experience is more fodder that people can use to make the push for the public option happen. If we get that, or even if we get some form of real reform that doesn't end up as a shitty insurance company bailout, it'll be worth it.

If your nerves are up to it, I encourage you to read Martin's spine-tingling account of the week he's just been through and happily survived, "Why We Need Health Care Reform: My Story." It will have special resonance for anyone who has ever faced a no-kidding immediate-emergency medical crisis without health insurance. In my case, what I remember best is that, terrifying as the medical fears were, there wasn't a moment in the entire ordeal when my first terror wasn't: how the hell am I going to pay for this?

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