American Medical Association Announces Opposition To Republican Health Bill
The nation’s largest medical organization has come out against the Republican health care bill.
On Monday the American Medical Association announced its opposition to the Senate health care bill.
The AMA’s CEO James Madara wrote a letter saying the bill would violate the AMA’s core principle that doctors “first, do no harm.”
For the AMA Medicaid cuts were the main concern however they also raised the issue with smaller subsidies and waivers of benefits “will expose low and middle income patients to higher costs and greater difficulty in affording care.”
“Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels,” AMA Executive Vice President and CEO James Madara wrote in the letter.
“We sincerely hope that the Senate will take this opportunity to change the course of the current debate and work to fix problems with the current system,” Madara added.
“We believe that Congress should be working to increase the number of Americans with access to quality, affordable health insurance instead of pursuing policies that have the opposite effect, and we renew our commitment to work with you in that endeavor.”
The House version of the bill would cut over $800 billion from Medicaid, however, the Senate version of the bill would make even more dramatic cuts to the program.
Medicaid is the single largest provider of health insurance in the U.S. covering more than 70 million people.
The AMA objected to the GOP plan which they said would limit states’ ability to address health care issues.
“It would be a serious mistake to lock into place another arbitrary and unsustainable formula that will be extremely difficult and costly to fix,” Madara said.
“We also continue to oppose Congressionally-mandated restrictions on where lower income women (and men) may receive otherwise covered health care services — in this case the prohibition on individuals using their Medicaid coverage at clinics operated by Planned Parenthood,” Madara said.
“These provisions violate longstanding AMA policy on patients’ freedom to choose their providers and physicians’ freedom to practice in the setting of their choice.”
The American Medical Association is one of the most powerful health care lobbying groups in the U.S. and the join the majority of the health care industry which hass announced public opposition to the Republican bill.
[image via screenshot]
