WASHINGTON — Looking to frame this key week in the health care debate, President Barack Obama on Monday called in some white coat reinforcements.
The Senate Finance Committee is set to vote on its version of health care legislation, with the full Senate and House expected to move forward after that.
So Obama surrounded himself with 150 doctors, including three Nebraskans, for a White House event touting some of the major goals of his health care proposals:
ŸProviding more affordable health insurance options for millions of people.
ŸOffering greater protection for those who already have insurance.
ŸCutting down on the bureaucratic paperwork that robs physicians of time with patients.
Obama cited the physicians' support as evidence that his proposals would not result in government bureaucrats coming between doctors and patients, as critics have said.
“When you cut through all the noise and all the distractions that are out there,” Obama said, “I think what's most telling is that some of the people who are most supportive of reform are the very medical professionals who know the health care system best — the doctors and nurses of America.”
But Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., an orthopedic surgeon for 25 years, said many doctors, nurses and patients strongly oppose Obama's proposals.
They are greatly alarmed at proposed cuts in Medicare, which is the main source of health care for many people in Wyoming and elsewhere, Barrasso said Monday in an interview. He said doctors and hospitals also want provisions to protect themselves against “abusive lawsuits” by people claiming malpractice.
Among those at the White House event were Dr. Jessica Meeske, a pediatric dentist from Hastings, Neb., and Dr. Richard O'Brien of Creighton University's Center for Health Policy and Ethics.
Dr. Amanda McKinney, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Beatrice, Neb., joined three other doctors on stage with Obama.
Obama mentioned McKinney and the others on stage by name, saying they represented “red states, blue states, recalcitrant states, high-cost states, low-cost states, rural and urban states.”
After the event, the Nebraskans echoed Obama's words about the need to provide access to health care and cut out the haggling with insurance companies.
“My time cannot be taken trying to figure out what insurance covers and doesn't, waiting on the phone for approval,” Meeske said. “I need to be taking care of the kid. Particularly when their family has driven four hours from Ogallala to be able to get dental care.”
Obama also brought up proposals to increase the incentives for primary care physicians to practice in rural areas.
O'Brien said those provisions are key for Nebraska, where rural areas face dire shortages in primary care, mental health care and other medical services.
The Nebraska doctors watched as a group of protestors gathered outside the White House gates, calling loudly for a single payer system. O'Brien said that although such a system might be a good idea, it is not politically feasible.
The Nebraskans expressed support for a public health insurance option. But they also said the system can be improved by legislation that lacks such an option. Several committees on Capitol Hill have approved such an option, but it has been left out of the Senate Finance Committee's bill.
Critics of a public option and of proposals to expand existing government health insurance programs such as Medicaid have said that low reimbursement rates by the government could shutter some hospitals and force doctors to stop practicing.
The Nebraskans, however, said that hospitals already are forced to deal with the costs of treating uninsured patients. They also said it is unlikely that doctors would leave their profession in droves over government reimbursement rates.
The Nebraskans described speaking out in favor of the pending health care legislation as an extension of a physician's duty to care for patients.
“Part of doing those things,” McKinney said, “is making sure that we are not just healing the people who have good health insurance.”
This report includes material from the Associated Press.
Contact the writer:
202-662-7270, joe.morton@owh.com
