Obama, doctors, and health care
The White House hosts 150 doctors to push health-care reform—where do the rest of our doctors stand?
Obama speaks in front of 150 doctors assembled in the White House Rose Garden.
(epa/Corbis/Michael Reynolds)
“Doctors do make house calls after all,” said Tabassum Zakaria in Reuters, at least if you live in the White House. A “sea of white lab coats” surrounded President Obama as he made his latest pitch for health-care reform. Obama didn’t mention the public option to the 150 assembled doctors from all 50 states, but a New England Journal of Medicine poll in September found that most U.S. doctors want both public and private options in the reform.
No wonder Obama wanted supportive doctors in the picture: They’re the most trusted voice in this debate, said Carrie Budoff Brown in Politico. Still, “the physician community is far from unified on the Democratic plan to overhaul health care.” To highlight that divide, the Republican National Committee hosted a call in which former American Medial Association president Donald Palmisano trashed any plan to increase government role in health care.
RNC Chairman Michael Steele must not have gotten the memo, said Steve Benen in Washington Monthly. On Fox and Friends Monday, Steele said the AMA “does not have the credibility on this health care issue” (watch). Perhaps he doesn’t know that the AMA, until this year, had “a lengthy record of trashing Democratic reform proposals”—or perhaps the GOP “just loved the AMA—right up until the group decided the Democratic reform proposals were a good deal.”
Critics are right, though, that Obama used the 150 doctors in the Rose Garden “as props,” said Russell Mokhiber in Single Payer Action. The White House cherry-picked the attendees—not allowed in, for example, were members of Physicians for a National Health Program, a group that represents 17,000 doctors in favor of a single-payer national health-care system.
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11 Comments
Posted by mom2nine, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 5:09 pm The gentleman to the president's left, our right is from the great state of ME. We have been here for 5 yrs. and have never seen such poor health care. We have two family members working in hospitals. There is a majority of people on the state system, which is consistently YEARS behind in paying the hospitals. Gov. money went into the hospitals with the stimulus plan. what happens when the entire country follows Maine's lead thanks to Snowe and docs such as this one: bad and broke healthcare. what a plan
Posted by Gut Shot, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 5:51 pm Usually when you see a black man surrounded by a sea of white it's bad news for the black man. In this case it is bad news for the entire USA.
Posted by Toni, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 5:52 pm 150 doctors, in white coats. Hm. 150? WHY? Because he could only find 150 doctors who wanted to be on TV. The others were working, caring for patients and saving lives, not smiling for the cameras. PHONEY. REAL DOCTORS do NOT WANT SOCIAL MEDICINE. They made BHO look like a fool.
Posted by DAVE, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 5:55 pm The goverment will help about 13,000,000 uninsured, which means that MILLIONS will not be insured. AND, it will cost more than 900 BILLION. Do the math. That makes NO SENSE. Take care of yourselves and your family, and stop looking for handouts. Write to and call Snowe and tell her NO!
Posted by Matilda, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 5:59 pm That stupid news conference was WRONG on so many levels. Do the math. It doesn't make good sense to spend hundreds of billions of OUR MONEY to insure people who won't help themselves, who eat themselves into bad health, and then expect someone else to pay their bills. If they are spending MY tax money, then I get to tell them how to take care of themselves, right? More exercise. CUT BACK ON BAD FOOD. Plenty of rest. EXERCISE. No smoking. Less drinking. That advice is free. If someone needs help, then let's do what we can to assist.
Posted by APatt, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 7:19 pm I agree, mom2nine.
Posted by dj spellchecka, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 7:29 pm Most doctors 63 percent say they favor giving patients a choice that would include both public and private insurance. NPR, 9/14/09
Posted by swibikabi, Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 8:17 pm Sure Matilda... and let those who can't afford health insurance and come down with incurable diseases, birth defects, etc, rot. Am I my brother's keeper? Matilda sure isn't she must be a Christian conservative
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