NY Times AMA article and letters.
The day before I wrote this letter to the Times Editor, there was an outburst of letters disagreeing with a NY Times article that quoted the AMA president. She implied that most doctors favored the private health insurers over a government program. That is not true; three quarters of medical doctors do not belong to the AMA and more than half favor prefer a Medicare style plan. Not one doctor's letter agreed with what the AMA president said.
As a family physician and member of the American Medical Association for nearly fifty years, I agree that every American deserves affordable, high-quality care. In a letter to the Times, Nancy Nielsen, the AMA president said, “a government-run health care plan is certainly not the only option on the table.” Seems she didn’t she know Senator Baucus declared that a public-option is “off the table.”
Medicare, a government funded health plan, has always been good for my senior patients. Many of them would have had no health insurance if there were no Medicare. Doctors also benefited from this government program.
The real objection is that private health insurers cannot compete with a public option and keep their patients.
Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD
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