President Obama talks health care and reform of health insurance to the American Medical Association

President Obama talks health care and reform of health insurance to the American Medical Association -

This morning in Chicago, President Obama spoke to the American Medical Association 158th annual meeting about, guess what, healthcare and reform of health insurance.

covered the president a lot of ground in his speech nearly an hour, touching its main views on reform, but endearing. each available with physician interaction

here are some of the most remarkable parts of his speech:

• Cut Medicare Advantage payments . This was a turning point for the bonding health insurance industry in reform. President Obama wants a more competitive market for Medicare Advantage and sees $ 177 billion in savings over 10 years if Advantage plans are paid similarly to traditional Medicare coverage.
• Medical malpractice . Traditionally, one of the biggest no-no for Democrats on healthcare reform was the reform of medical malpractice. It was a battle between doctors who believe they are vulnerable to unfair prosecution and politicians who believe consumers are vulnerable to poor doctors. President Obama is playing both sides of the fence in one direction, saying it is against price cap malpractice, it is fine to reduce lawsuits.

  But medical malpractice is a double-edged sword. Because doctors can be sued if they do not play, many are called "defensive medicine," or order up a lot of expensive health care treatments, even if they are not needed. So while defensive medicine helps protect doctors against prosecution, it drives up the overall cost of health care.

• A public health insurance plan . Doctors fear a public plan that would provide Medicare payments as health providers, but President Obama argued that a public plan would reduce long-term costs and without it, the costs of health care increasingly detrimental payments doctor anyway.

Another key element of this speech was, well, he addressed WADA to all. The president was clear that he wanted to keep all parties, associations of physicians included in the conversation and the debate on reform.

And most reports completed after the speech said the president was quite well received by the physician group. How all this opening support Obama and other health reformers on Capitol Hill is still a big question unanswered.

For more information and to see the speech, see this article in the New York Times.

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