The chances of the Democrats reversing the Medicare cuts

Slim and none:

Unless the outgoing Republicans can use the lame-duck session to find the solution that eluded them all year, the American Medical Association (AMA) will have to look instead to Democrats next year after having directed 73 percent of its campaign giving to Republican candidates.

Comments

Anonymous
As a young active AMA member, I am surprised with the pure stupidity of the AMPAC during this election campiagn. The writing was on the wall that the Democrats we’re goingg to win at least the House, for months before the election. If if they didn’t see the writing, they knew it would at least be a tight race (unless they we’re delusional like Karl Rove was the night before th elections). Strategically speaking, why in the world would 73% of contributions go toward a loosing party, regardlss of thier stance on the issue. Playing politics means winning, not ideaology. Physicians, hence AMA, should have been cultivating promoters on boths sides of the aile from the begning. Forget that Dem get 90% of the trial lawyer votes. We need to win our issue which is fixing the SGR, and higher reimbursement. Tort reform, while something I support, on a national level has failed 12 times with both republican houses.
I cannot belive that the AMA takes my due, plus those I gave AMPAC and flushed this political opp away. They have failed the AMericna physician, again in a big way.
Anonymous
so quit,
i left the AMA because i disagree with many of their policies.
DBR
“Physicians, hence AMA, should have been cultivating promoters on boths sides of the aile from the begning. Forget that Dem get 90% of the trial lawyer votes.”
How can you possibly forget that?
And, even if you can, with only abut 10% of physicians in America supporting AMPAC and the state medical society PACs, you can’t even BEGIN to compete with what the trial lawyers spend to buy their legislators…
AMPAC chooses candidates based on how good a friend they’ve been to medicine in the past, as well as where they stand on the issues – which are themselves chosen by elected physician representatives in the AMA.
Sure, Republicans stood to lose big in this election – might it have been “smarter” politics to cut and run to the candidates on the other side, to TRY to buy us some Democrats?
Well, maybe.
Would it have been honest or honorable? Nope….and the Democrats who’ve disagreed with physicians on almost every issue would have seen it for what it was – a tepid attempt to buy their support.
A pathetic attempt, really, since physicians don’t give a FRACTION of what lawyers give to their PACS…leaving AMPAC with a LOT less money to spend….
Anonymous
DBR:
Physicians need to a lot of help from both parties. True, malpractice and Trial attorney overfund the Dems and most physicians would think twice before they spend a nickle on lobbying. But we are not in a battle of principles. We are in battle to delivery good quality care for our patients. Therefore, elected leaders are jsut that, leaders. So whether they share our full philosphical views or are complete counter to our views (in the case of trail attornies), we need to keep our goals honorable. 5% reduction in medicare hurts more than malpractice ( or is atleast comparable). So while we should fight for malpractice reform, we need to also focus on other issues. And knowing the Dems will win, to waste limited resources on unwinabl fights (at least during this election) is foolhardy and ultimately hurts us and our patients more. So, being a smart moderate does not amount to selling our soles. This isn’t like the docs that sold their soles and their profession to the HMO in the late 80s. It amounts to increasing our chances to obtain the resources we need to tak better care of our patients.
ASH
Anonymous
to address those that say quit.
That does not address the issues, and infact worsens our cause. Without the AMA, you don’t know how bad of a mess you’d be in, worse than now that is, much worse.
The AMA is the only national association that has the might to do what’s right for doctors, no one else. n ospecialty groups, no one. So, in order to win at the government level, we need to support the AMA. If you disagree, the AMA meetings are open to all. Take part. Quiting is the easy lazy persons answer. Instead, gt more involved. In know your busy but hte AMA is in a fight to save medicine and needs your ideas and help.
ASH
Anonymous
I quit because I don’t agree with what they were doing with my money.
Their political motives always appear shortsighted and motivated more by physicians wallets than actual patient concerns. (sure, they’ll argue it’s “for the patients” but the proof is in the pudding)
They lobby only for tort reform, not for malpractice reform. I don’t agree that caps on damages actually accomplish anything except making the insurance companies more money. The AMA has yet to change their mind about this.
They lobby to stop medicare reimbursement cuts, but once the issue passes they do not push for any meaningful reform.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was finding out the AMA is the gateway for pharmaceutical companies to obtain doc’s prescribing patterns.
To opt out of this requires hunting through their website and jumping through the requisite hoops. http://califmedicineman.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-prevent-drug-reps-from-seeing.html
The AMA does a lot of good with it’s health initiatives for patients, but i just can’t go along with the above political policies.
I’ve contacted them and expressed my opinion numerous times prior to exiting. But i could not continue to fund their strategies that are so myopic.
DBR
Anon 11:10 noted: “They lobby only for tort reform, not for malpractice reform.”
Perhaps if he (or she – it’s so hard to TELL with anonymice) continued to pay dues and pay ATTENTION to what the AMA has been doing over the past several years, he (or she) wouldn’t display such glaring ignorance….
The AMA FOUNDED and continues to fund the organization that has LED THE WAY for patient safety reform, The National Patient Safety Foundation, and pushed HARD for the ONLY national patient safety bill, which the President signed in 2005. Here are links to information about both:
National Patient Safety Foundation:
Mission: To Improve the Safety of Patients through our efforts to: Identify and create a core body of knowledge; Identify pathways to apply the knowledge; Develop and enhance the culture of receptivity to patient safety; Raise public awareness and foster communications about patient safety; and Improve the status of the Foundation and its ability to meet its goals. http://www.npsf.org/
NPSF gratefully acknowledges the support of its founding sponsors:
American Medical Association
CNA / HealthPro
3M
**********************************
President Signs Patient Safety Legislation
August 8, 2005
EM Today
http://www.acep.org/webportal/membercenter/periodicals/emtoday/2005/EMTodayAug82005/PresidentSignsPatientSafetyLeg.htm
President Bush signed legislation on July 29 that will allow the confidential reporting of medical errors. The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act allows physicians, hospitals and other health care entities to report errors to patient safety organizations, which will compile the information into a national database and then analyze the data to develop patient safety and quality improvement strategies.
The legislation requires that patient safety data remain confidential and legally protected. It also provides penalties for unlawful disclosures and preserves confidentiality of patient information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The legislation was supported by ACEP, the American Medical Association and other health care organizations.
**********************************
In addition to the National Patient Safety Foundation and passage of the patient safety legislation, the AMA offers many publications, studies and quality tools – here are links to SOME of them:
Patient safety and quality tools
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/12582.html
Performance Measurement Sets Tools developed by physicians for physicians in support of efforts to enhance the quality of patient care.
Health Literacy The AMA recognizes that limited patient literacy is a barrier to medical diagnosis and treatment and therefore has provided Health Literacy toolkits, sponsored special events and created an extensive grant program that has funded dozens of community-based health literacy programs throughout the United States.
Older Driver Safety Program assists physicians in making driver safety a routine part of their geriatric medical services.
Fight BAC! ™ Foodborne Illnesses Patient Handout This patient education pamphlet teaches patients how to avoid foodborne illnesses. (Available in Adobe Acrobat.)
Preventing Infections in the Hospital – What You as a Patient Can Do The AMA has joined with the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) to help educate patients on ways to prevent infection.
**********************************
ASH noted that physicians need to have friends on BOTH sides of the aisle, and he or she is correct – which is why physicians throughout the nation have been urged to reach out to their NEW legislators, keeping in mind that an elected official is SUPPOSED to represent all constituents, not only those who voted for him or her.
Physician contributions have skewed slighly toward Republicans in recent years – while lawyer contributions have skewed HUGELY toward Democrats. But that all must be set aside, as physicians need to make themselves available to both old and new legislators as sources of information about health care issues.
Fully ONE THIRD of legislation that reaches congress has something to do with health care, and the AMA is the ONLY organization that tracks and either recommends or opposes ALL of it.
If you visit the AMA website at http://capwiz.com/ama/issues/, you can see exactly what bills are currently being tracked by the AMA. Here’s a partial list of what appears:
Senate:
S. 2207 The Pregnancy and Trauma Care Access Protection Act (Cloture Vote) (108th Congress)
S. 2061 Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act (Cloture Vote) (108th Congress)
Prescription Drug Conference Report (includes Medicare Physician Update) (108th Congress)
S. 11 Senate Medical Liability Reform (108th Congress)
FY2003 Omnibus Appropriations (Physician Medicare Update) (108th Congress)
House:
H.R. 5 House Medical Liability Reform (109th Congress)
Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (109th Congress)
Prescription Drug Conference Report (includes Physician Medicare Update) (108th Congress)
H.R. 1 Prescription Drug Bill (108th Congress)
H.R. 5 House Medical Liability Reform (108th Congress)
H.R. 663 House Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act (108th Congress)
FY2003 Omnibus Appropriations (Physician Medicare Update) (108th Congress)
As anyone who bothers to take the time can easily see, it’s about a lot MORE than just medical liability reform….and not ALL of the issues have a partisan flavor…
Despite the fact that some legislators prefer to make decisions about health care unimpeded by physician input (remember the HillaryCare commission?), I suspect that most ARE open to your thoughts and concerns – IF you offer them forcefully enough….
ASH also said: “Without the AMA, you don’t know how bad of a mess you’d be in, worse than now that is, much worse.
The AMA is the only national association that has the might to do what’s right for doctors, no one else. n ospecialty groups, no one. So, in order to win at the government level, we need to support the AMA. If you disagree, the AMA meetings are open to all. Take part. Quiting is the easy lazy persons answer. Instead, gt more involved. In know your busy but hte AMA is in a fight to save medicine and needs your ideas and help.”
Let me agree with ASH COMPLETELY. Would it be better for physicians if NO ONE advocated for the medical profession?
Those who don’t get involved with the AMA, to MAKE IT REFLECT their views, which is exactly what AMA policy is, the views of the MAJORITY of member physicians, have NO RIGHT TO COMPLAIN when it doesn’t reflect YOURS. And continuing membership issues erode the AMA’s ability to fight for even those who are too cheap or lazy to participate….so those who blindly throw stones, while letting OTHERS foot the bill are hurting the WHOLE medical profession, not just themselves.
DBR

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