Healthcare Career Blog, Physician Blogs

Physicians Debate Healthcare Reform

Author Healthcare Career Blogger | 08.05.2009

That the current state of the U.S. healthcare system is a problem, few will deny. The United States, which spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other country in the world, found itself a disappointing #37 on the World Health Organization’s 2000 rankings of world health systems. But the question remains: what can be done about it? And thus, the debate ensues.

As politicians debate President Obama’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, health professionals, as well, have a wide range of criticisms of the proposal. Some argue that the plan is nothing more than socialized medicine, while others push more to the left for a single-payer system.

The American Medical Association (AMA) announced its support of the healthcare bill this summer, stating that “without a bill that can pass the House, there will be no health reform this year.” The AMA recognizes that the plan is not perfect (the bill does not, for example, do enough to protect doctors from crippling malpractice suits), but it lauds the bill for its attempt to provide health coverage to all Americans regardless of age, financial status, or pre-existing conditions.

The AMA has since faced backlash, however, from the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, which has accused the AMA of selling out and has urged physicians to leave the country’s largest medical association. According to the AAPS, the current bill will result in longer patient lines and substandard care as doctors become “servants to the state, insurance companies, [and] hospitals.” Their argument, and the arguments of many who consider the plan to be socialized medicine, is that physicians will lose their autonomy and will be forced to provide less medical care for less money.

Advocates of a single-payer system, like Physicians for a National Health Program, refute this claim simply by saying, “What autonomy?” Physicians today are often caught in a maze of insurance company restrictions that impede their patient care. Supporters of the single-payer system blame the current system for the lack of doctor-patient relationships; as patients are forced to shift insurance companies, they are often also forced to change physicians, ultimately leading to deterioration in primary care. A single-payer system, they claim, would allow doctors to focus entirely on patient care without having to circumnavigate the insurance companies’ restrictions.

No proposed plan is going to be an immediate panacea to the myriad problems with the healthcare system, and no plan will ever be embraced by all physicians, but few can deny that not since FDR’s New Deal has healthcare reform seemed so close.

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