AMA declares war on Obama — opposes healthcare plan
What follows is a must read blog entry by Robert Reich, former Clinton Secretary of Labor, where he reports that the American Medical Association (AMA) opposes President Obama’s public option for health care. Health care may end up being Obama’s claim to fame — or failure. Progreso’s Black and White column quoted the president this week saying, “The greatest threat to America’s fiscal health is not Social Security … By a wide margin, the biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care.”
Reich urges his readers that as Americans we must start lobbying in favor of our interests. Big time lobbyists, he warns us, are already spending millions to make sure a viable health care option is NOT passed through Congress.
I urge you to read his blog entry. What follows are his first few paragraphs and a link.
Alvaro F. Fernandez
From Robert Reich’s blog
June 11 — Yesterday the American Medical Association came out against a public option for health care. And yesterday the President reaffirmed his support for it. The next weeks will show what Obama is made of — whether he’s willing and able to take on the most formidable lobbying coalition he has faced so far on an issue that will define his presidency.
And make no mistake: A public option large enough to have bargaining leverage to drive down drug prices and private-insurance premiums is the defining issue of universal health care. It’s the only way to make health care affordable. It’s the only way to prevent Medicare and Medicaid from eating up future federal budgets. An ersatz public option – whether Kent Conrad’s non-profit cooperatives, Olympia Snowe’s “trigger,” or regulated state-run plans – won’t do squat.
The last president to successfully take on the giant health care lobbies was LBJ. He got Medicare and Medicaid enacted because he weighed into the details, twisted congressional arms, threatened and cajoled, drew lines in the sand, and went to war against the AMA and the other giant lobbyists standing in the way. The question now is how much LBJ is in Barack Obama.
To keep reading visit: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/06/healthcare-war-is-now-official.html
