Let's hope the President whips the AMA today into at least a better attitude. In a general letter protesting against the creation of a single-payer system, the AMA "couldn't get through the second paragraph before bringing up the issue of physician reimbursement."
In his so-called "magisterial" article in The New Yorker, Atul Gawande says that health care professionals of all stripes must unite to pull down health care costs for "all" consumers. He says,
"The overarching goal of health-care reform is to establish a system that has three basic attributes. It should leave no one uncovered—medical debt must disappear as a cause of personal bankruptcy in America. It should no longer be an economic catastrophe for employers. And it should hold doctors, nurses, hospitals, drug and device companies, and insurers collectively responsible for making care better, safer, and less costly." [New Yorker].
Who wants the current pattern of "routine cruelty"? Why not strive for compassion and focus? How will doctors at the AMA ever be able to make it up to the President for the pain and suffering he saw his sick mother experience?
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