Free Republic

A proposed special-interest tax break for plaintiffs' lawyers would add billions of dollars in federal spending and jack up costs to consumers. It's nothing more than a direct subsidy from taxpayers to ambulance chasers. That was the message of a strongly worded letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner from the American Medical Association, 42 national medical groups representing specialties such as radiology, cardiology and gastroenterology, and the medical associations of 47 states and the District of Columbia. The Treasury is considering an administrative ruling - as an end run around Congress - that would allow trial lawyers to take...

Months after delivering its crucial endorsement of the health care overhaul, the American Medical Association has found itself with fewer friends on Capitol Hill and more critics questioning its lobbying savvy. Its troubles couldn’t come at a worse time: It is more dependent than ever on having allies in Congress, thanks to the growing number of Medicare patients. The AMA’s most prominent lobbying failure has been its inability to repeal the obsolete formula governing payments for Medicare patients — a method that has for years required regular temporary “fixes” to avoid big pay cuts for doctors. Determined to win repeal,...

Docs4PatientCare began as a grassroots movement led by a prominent physician in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Hal Scherz,who felt he must act in response to the AMA's support of Obamacare. Attempting to enact his big-government health care scheme, President Obama and his supporters frequently claimed that a “majority” of doctors supported his health-care plans. When the American Medical Association – which had opposed HillaryCare – signed onto Obama’s plan last year, the organization seemed to make the President’s case. Most people assumed that the AMA represented most of the doctors in the country. But in fact, the AMA represents less than...

Nine times in the past eight years, Congress has, at the last second, delayed the automatic cuts in doctors’ Medicare fees that it decreed some 13 years ago to prevent Medicare spending from outpacing other consumer expenditures. The AMA threatens that doctors, especially primary care doctors, will stop accepting Medicare patients if the cuts go through. Congress hurtles toward the head-on collision, citing runaway budget problems. Doctors are kept in suspense, their claims held in abeyance while carriers wait for Congress to fix the problem retroactively if it has missed its deadline. The AMA claims credit when the wreck is...

A six-month stay on Medicare cuts cleared the Senate Friday but too late to avert what will be still a claims processing nightmare for physicians faced with a 21 percent reduction in their reimbursements. With the House gone for the weekend, no final resolution is possible before next week, and the Senate itself only acted hours after the deadline set by Medicare administrators. The payment cut will be eliminated and a 2.2 percent raise will be applied to Medicare reimbursements through Nov. 30. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and ranking Republican Charles E. Grassley came up with the deal...

The American Medical Association (AMA) is putting the doctors of America on notice. A major cheerleader for ObamaCare, the organization is now trying to silence doctors who oppose it. It is time the American people understood what the AMA is really all about.

A top House Republican is investigating the legislative deals the White House and Democratic leadership cut with special interest groups while crafting the new health care reform law. And California Rep. Darrell Issa is not happy with the American Medical Association’s terse response to his questions. Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to five special interest groups, most of which supported reform and cut deals with the Democrats. “Contrary to the president’s oft-stated goal of transparency, the rank-and-file members of the Democratic Caucus and the entire Republican Conference have not had the opportunity to participate...

...As I watched the recent presidential campaign many things struck me as odd, but one in particular. Barack Obama enjoyed the support of the United Mine Workers Union. That in itself is not a big surprise as he had the support of every union as Democrat politicians usually have. The interesting part was when you factored in Obama’s comments regarding the future of coal:

Earlier in the week, the American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest physician organization, declared its backing for the most recent version of Obamacare. Doctors are notoriously bad businessman and, judging from the AMA’s haste to support pretty much any bill Congress proposes, it seems that negotiating is not the strong suit of physicians, either. During the prolonged health-care debate, the AMA sought two sensible reforms: an abolishment of the SGR and tort reform. The Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) is a formula utilized by Medicare to determine Medicare physician reimbursement rates for the following year. Every year since 2002, the...

Democrats have been wildly misleading people about where doctors stand on ObamaCare. After bribing his way into AARP and AMA endorsements, Obama has been treating them as the final word on the matter and ramping up the partisan smears against his opponents. But what he is characteristically leaving out is that only about 15-20% of doctors actually belong to the AMA and the vast majority of doctors actually reject ObamaCare. From National Review: "...92 percent of doctors don’t think the Democratic bills address the “real sources of cost increases,” and 94 percent don’t think there can be “effective” health reform...

The Ronald Reagan U.C.L.A. Medical Center, one of the nation’s most highly regarded academic hospitals, has earned a reputation as a place where doctors will go to virtually any length and expense to try to save a patient’s life. “If you come into this hospital, we’re not going to let you die,” said Dr. David T. Feinberg, the hospital system’s chief executive. Yet that ethos has made the medical center a prime target for critics in the Obama administration and elsewhere who talk about how much money the nation wastes on needless tests and futile procedures. They like to note...

My question is if the medical profession is so concerned about people who can't afford health insurance, why don't they simply reduce their prices to the uninsured and or provide charity clinics for poor people. Why should we have to submit to socialism and outright force to please the AMA and guarantee income for their professional scalpers? Are they afraid they will lose some of their precious profits? Why do they feel it's their privilege to rob the taxpayers? Doctors and politicians must be cut from the same cloth.

"American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert's vocals weren't top-notch at last night's American Music Awards, but nobody really noticed. How could they, given his over-the-top and in-your-face sexual choreography. Lambert's act during the show, aired on ABC, featured male dancers on leashes, an open-mouth kiss between Lambert and his male keyboardist, and simulated oral sex, both male-on-male and female-on-male. Naturally, boundary-pushing Hollywood hailed Lambert's performance. "As a TV viewer, I thought Lambert's performance was a gas, a delight, a blast of brash vulgarity in the midst of ordinary vulgarity," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker.

Adam Lambert, the American Idol star, outraged viewers of the American Music Awards with an X-rated performance in which he simulated oral sex with a male dancer. Lambert set out to shock with a risque routine which also saw him kissing a male band mate and walking two men in bondage gear across the stage on dog leads. He was singing his new release, For Your Entertainment. After the performance, his first since American Idol, Lambert said: "I'm hoping people were entertained. For those who weren't, maybe I'm not your cup of tea." If the show was to be censored...

Not surprisingly, the American Medical Association took umbrage to our recent editorial titled "A proud legacy trashed." The response from AMA president Dr. J James Rohack barely addresses the issues our editorial put forth. For one thing, Dr. Rohack tries to explain away the declining membership of the organization, when addressing the issue of the low representation of practicing doctors who are currently members.

Supporters of the House health care bill who tout the American Medical Association's endorsement fail to mention that the AMA no longer represents the majority of American doctors or that it frequently backs left-wing policy proposals. There was a brief flash of the old AMA earlier this week when the organization's House of Delegates reconsidered the resolution endorsing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's monstrosity, H.R. 3962. Unfortunately, the resolution was voted down by a wide margin. As a result, the AMA continues to back the health care legislation passed in the House last weekend. Best known for advocating against health care...

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, issued the following statement today on the American Medical Association’s (AMA) announcements regarding LGBT rights. AMA members voted to join the effort to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and declared that bans on same-sex marriage result in health disparities for LGBT couples and families.

As the suicidal Democratic congressmen proceed to rubber-stamp the Obama healthcare reform despite the drubbing their party took in the ’09 elections, the president trotted out the endorsements of the AMA and the AARP to stimulate support. But these — and the other endorsements — his package has received are all bought and paid for. Here are the deals: · The American Medical Association (AMA) was facing a 21 percent cut in physicians’ reimbursements under the current law. Obama promised to kill the cut if they backed his bill. The cuts are the fruit of a law requiring annual 5-6...

The American Medical Association House of Delegates drew up a resolution last night which would withdraw their support of the House health care bill. Members are likely to vote on whether or not to withdraw their support of the bill earlier in the week. This action is a result of members within the organization who revolted, when the AMA initially gave the the healthcare legislation its endorsement. President Obama touted the endorsement of the AMA and AARP on Thursday at the White House.

Some AMA members are outraged that the group's trustees made the endorsement without the formal approval of the organization's House of Delegates. The American Medical Association's much-touted endorsement of the House health care reform bill has triggered a revolt among some members who want the endorsement withdrawn. Some members are outraged that the group's trustees made the endorsement without the formal approval of the organization's House of Delegates. On Monday, delegates will vote on a resolution offered by some members that, if approved, will withdraw the AMA’s endorsement of the bill. President Obama cited the endorsement of the influential AMA,...