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President Obama's Healthcare Reform Proposal
(As presented to the American Medical Association - June 15, 2009)
Last week, President Obama described his plan for healthcare reform to the American Medical Association. The AMA’s doctor-members are very interested in how reform will affect their businesses and income.
Another group with a vested interest in what the president had to say is private companies like insurers. They want to know, and control, how reform will affect their profitability and viability.
We patients comprise the third and largest group. Our interests are different from the others. We hold the biggest healthcare reform stake of all -- our lives and health.
Over the next few months, those stakeholders whose profits will be affected by reform efforts will begin their campaigns of fear mongering with a vengeance. Too often they consider their profits to be more important than our health. So they will begin drawing and broadcasting fictional conclusions about the President’s plan to scare us into believing that reform will cost us the healthcare we need and deserve.
During his speech, President Obama addressed those fabricated fears directly. Here are a few of his statements that directly affect us patients:- Healthcare reform will not equal socialized medicine. The president made it clear that he intends to capitalize on the private aspects of healthcare that do work well.
- If you like your doctor and/or you like your insurance plan, you can keep them. No one will force you to make changes you don’t want to make.
- Currently doctors are paid for seeing more patients and running more tests. A reformed system will instead reward them for keeping their patients healthy.
- Doctors will be encouraged to collaborate with other doctors. Today they rarely talk to each other because they can’t get reimbursed, and therefore can’t afford the time to do so.
- A “public option” insurance program will be developed to help those who struggle to afford the coverage they need. It will be one of many insurance options from which we can choose.
- Insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions.
Going forward, if you find statements that confuse or scare you about healthcare reform, please do not give in to these groups that value their income over your life. Study the options. Form your own opinions.
Reform will become a fact of life. It’s important it be centered on us patients and not on profits.
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Learn more about President Obama's Address to the AMA
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© 2009 Trisha Torrey All rights reserved. |
