AMA backs alternatives to health-care reform, remains opposed to government-run system

Doctors group open to insurance exchanges like those used by government workers, members of Congress

In an effort to avoid stonewalling President Barack Obama's health-care plan, the American Medical Association voted Wednesday to support new "alternatives" to reforming the health-care system, including those funded by the federal government.

The AMA's 543-member policymaking body stripped "public option" from an earlier resolution, but doctors endorsed a plan to cover the uninsured by supporting "health system reform alternatives."

The AMA's action at its annual meeting in Chicago keeps the door open to one Obama administration idea being discussed in Congress to use so-called insurance exchanges similar to the federal health program used by government workers and members of Congress. Obama addressed the doctors on Monday, seeking their support for his plan. The AMA remains adamantly opposed to an expansion of a government-run system like Medicare, which they see as headed to insolvency.

The AMA worried Congress might parse the words "public option" and translate any resolution approved by the group to mean they supported a Medicare-like plan or a single-payer form of health insurance.

Obama drew standing ovations from delegates Monday when he discussed his yet-to-be-defined public option, which he called an insurance exchange that would preserve patients' choice of doctors and work like private plans that cover federal employees. Obama insisted the public insurance option he envisions isn't a "Trojan horse" for a government-run system.

Throughout the five-day meeting, which ended Wednesday, AMA delegates were adamantly opposed to a single-payer approach to insuring all Americans, because that approach would dramatically reduce the role of private insurance companies. A major concern with a government-run system is that it could lead to price controls.

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