“Health reform that covers the uninsured is AMA’s top priority this year,” the American Medical Association said today in a statement. However, the AMA sought to clarify the type of public health plan option it would support, in response to a story that appeared today in The New York Times that characterized the AMA as opposed to a public plan option as part of healthcare reform legislation.
The AMA’s statement said that the organization opposed a public health plan “that forces physicians to participate, expands the fiscally-challenged Medicare program, or pays Medicare rates.” However, the AMA held out the possibility that it could support some approaches to a public plan, including “a federally chartered co-op health plan or a level playing field option for all plans.”
President Obama is scheduled to address AMA members at the association’s annual meeting next week.
