If You Can’t Beat ‘Em
by digby
This is useful since a lot of people ask their doctors what they think about this issue. Not that all doctors are in favor, but this can’t hurt …
The nation’s largest association of doctors and the AARP senior citizens’ lobby are endorsing President Barack Obama’s revised health overhaul legislation.
James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, said Friday that the pending bill isn’t perfect, but it’s the next step toward real reform of the nation’s health care system.
“This is certainly not the bill we would have written, but we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Rohack said.
The board of the Chicago-based group reached a consensus and voted unanimously Thursday night after a review of the House reconciliation bill…
The bill “goes a long way” toward assuring access to primary care for patients on Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled, Rohack said. The legislation gives primary care doctors a pay raise for Medicaid patients, increasing payments to the level of Medicare, as it expands Medicaid coverage to more patients in 2013 and 2014.
The bill would provide federal funding to states to cover that increase in Medicaid costs.
AARP has steadily supported health overhaul efforts. The organization’s CEO A. Barry Rand sent a letter Friday to members of the House of Representatives, urging them to vote yes.
AARP is going to have its hands full. The GOP is planning a full blown Soylent Green campaign and the elderly are going to wind up even more petrified than they already are.
.