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US President Barack Obama on Monday asked the country's largest doctors' group to help him reform America's expensive health care system, making it affordable for millions of uninsured Americans, as he likened the escalating health care costs to a time bomb that may make the country go "broke". "I need your help doctors. To most Americans, you are the health care system. Americans 'me included' just do what you recommend. That is why I will listen to you and work with you to pursue reform that works for you," Obama said here at the annual meeting of the influential American Medical Association, which represents a quarter of a million doctors.
He said if they work together, they will be able to bring spending down, quality up and save hundreds of billions of dollars on health care costs while making the nation's health care system work better for patients and doctors alike. Obama's nearly hour-long speech to about 2,200 AMA members and guests received numerous standing ovations and was booed once.
Terming the escalating cost of health care "a threat to our economy", Obama said the cost is a burden on US families and businesses. "It is a ticking time-bomb for the federal budget. And it is unsustainable for the United States of America. If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of GM, paying more, getting less and going broke".
The AMA, on its part said it would cooperate with the President to achieve his goal of providing affordable health insurance to all Americans."Like the president, the American Medical Association is committed to covering all Americans. Everybody deserves affordable, high-quality coverage. Over the next days, the AMA will figure out the way it can best help the president
reach the goals they share, which is affordable health insurance for all Americans," AMA President Nancy Nielsen told
reporters after Obama's address.
On Obama's preference for a government-sponsored health plan that would compete with private insurers, Nielsen said the group is willing to weigh any proposals that come forward and does not categorically oppose the idea of giving Americans the option of a public health plan. Seeking to garner support for his public option, Obama told the doctors that they should view the public insurance option as a friend and not an enemy.
On the issue of malpractice, Obama said doctors need a system where they can worry less about lawsuits. "I am not
advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I personally believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed," Obama said.
Obama said "fearmongers" and "naysayers" would try to thwart proposals like a government-sponsored insurance plan and use scare tactics that have worked in the past. "They will give dire warnings about socialised medicine and government takeovers, long lines and rationed care, decisions made by bureaucrats and not doctors". Making a case for urgent overhaul of the health care system, Obama said the current system is creating a situation where a single illness can wipe out a lifetime of savings.
He blamed some of the spiraling costs on a reimbursement system that he said pays for the number of tests and services provided, regardless of what is needed. "It is a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care, that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you cannot spend much time with each, and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it is not truly necessary," Obama said.
The president said the health care reform, including covering the almost 50 million Americans who have no insurance, would cost about a trillion dollars over 10 years.To cover the costs, Obama wants to cut federal payments to hospitals by about 200 billion dollars and cut 313 billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years. He also is proposing a 635 billion dollars in tax increases and spending cuts in the health care system as a "down payment" for his plan.
"Altogether, these savings mean that we have put about 950 billion dollars on the table, not counting some of the longer-term savings that will come about from reform taking us almost all the way to covering the full cost of health care reform," he said.
For those who do not have any insurance or are unhappy with their plan, they would have a chance to take part in a Health Insurance Exchange, which will enable them to compare benefits and prices and choose a health care plan that is best
for them, he said adding that there is need to end the practice of denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions.
He further stressed on the need to upgrade medical records by switching from a paper to an electronic system of record keeping, besides investing more in preventive care to avoid illness and disease in the first place. "You did not enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers. You entered this profession to be healers and that's what our health care system should let you be," he added.