'Medicare for All'? American Medical Association says no, drawing protest in Chicago.

[TexasTowelie]

Doctors gathered in Chicago for the American Medical Association’s annual meeting this week are increasingly finding themselves at the uncomfortable center of a national debate over “Medicare for All.”

A group of doctors, nurses and medical students protested the meeting, criticizing the association’s opposition to Medicare for All — the idea of expanding Medicare to cover all Americans. And on Monday, the doctors at the meeting heard a speech by Seema Verma, head of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a Trump appointee who devoted a chunk of her talk to what she sees as problems with the proposal.

She told the audience, to applause, that Medicare for All would lead to higher taxes, lower payments for doctors and rationing of health care, among other things.

“We are deeply committed to helping those who need it, but while doing that, we must put the patients and their doctors in the driver’s seat to make decisions about their care, not the government,” Verma said.

Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-american-medical-association-medicare-for-all-20190610-story.html

[gtar100]

1. Rationing of care already occurs. You get what you can pay for.

The AMA seems to have forgotten that doctors exist to care for the wellness of people. Sometime in my lifetime, being a doctor became about being rich, not healing people. My uncle was a doctor and as soon as he had enough to retire on he did. Spent the last 40 years of his life on cruise ships and world vacations. I wonder if he ever thinks twice about the patients he treated. But his attitude about the profession doesn't strike me as unusual for doctors. The greedy gravitate to the money and many do their best to keep up appearances. But to be an honest healer and medicine man takes heart which cannot be replicated out of expediency.

[Hoyt]

2. Medicare made physicians and others rich. Before Medicare and Medicaid, they got little

or nothing from many of their patients.

In any event, if they want choice, propose a Public Option. They’ll have a hard time opposing that.