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President Barack Obama, his team, and Democratic leaders in Congress are making plans to move on one of the 2008 campaign's biggest issues: health care reform. What do Mr. Obama, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and others have planned? What would it all mean to patients and their physicians?
And what do TMA and organized medicine plan to do to influence the outcome of the debate?
We expect the process to rollout throughout 2009. Details will emerge and change. We provide the information on this page, not as an endorsement, but rather as resources for Texas physicians who are interested in national health care reform. Please send us suggestions for additional links.
Texas Medical Association Making House Calls
TMA is shaping its own Texas-style health care reform package. We believe that any health system reform must put the needs of our patients first. TMA will travel across the state co-hosting town hall meetings, aka for “House Calls,” with county medical societies. Our goal is visit at least 10 communities while our U.S. representatives and Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn are back in Texas during the August recess.
The Obama Plan
On health care reform, the American people are too often offered two extremes -- government-run health care with higher taxes or letting the insurance companies operate without rules. Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe both of these extremes are wrong, and that’s why they’ve proposed a plan that strengthens employer coverage, makes insurance companies accountable and ensures patient choice of doctor and care without government interference.
Be sure to send the president your suggestions and ideas. "Tell us your story, why health care is important to you, or what you'd like to see an Obama-Biden administration do and where you'd like the country to go."
The Baucus Plan
The Senate Finance Committee chair is one of several congressional leaders compiling a health care reform plan. He has published his proposal in a 98-page white paper, "Call to Action: Health Reform 2009." (PDF)
"It is not intended to be a legislative proposal. Rather, it details my vision for both policy and the process in the upcoming health care reform debate. The plan contained outlined here addresses health care coverage, quality, and cost. Many components will require an initial investment but, over time, will vastly improve the quality of the health care Americans receive and reduce the cost of that health care, ultimately putting our system on a more sustainable path. It is my intention that after ten years the U.S. will spend no more on health care than is currently projected, but we will spend those resources more efficiently, and will provide better-quality coverage to all Americans."
Additional Articles and Resources on Health Care Reform
Articles and Reports
- TMA Offers Congress Insights on Reform (Action, Oct. 2, 2009)
- TMA, California Medical Association suggest improvements (PDF) to Senate Finance Committee health system reform bill (Sept. 21, 2009)
- AMA Defines Seven Health Reform Principles (Action, Sept. 15, 2009)
- TMA Expands Health Reform House Calls (Action, Sept. 1, 2009)
- TMA "Deeply Troubled" by House Health Reform Bill (Action, July 17, 2009)
- Border Health Caucus Response to The New Yorker Article: "The Cost Conundrum" (July 6, 2009)
- TMA Reform Must Provide Patient Access While Protecting Freedoms (June 17, 2009)
- Obama Touts Health Reform at AMA Meeting (Action, June 16, 2009)
- President Obama Brings His Health System Reform Proposals to U.S. Physicians (June 15, 2009)
- AMA Progress Report to President Obama: Pledge to Reduce Rate of Growth by 1.5 Percent (PDF, June 1, 2009)
- TMA Outlines Key Proposals to Improve Health Care Financing (PDF, May 26, 2009)
- Letter to Senator Baucus: Delivery System Reform Policy Options (PDF, May 15, 2009)
- TMA in Washington D.C. (March 6, 2007)
- Federal Stimulus Package Resource Center
- TMA: Your Voice on Health System Reform
- AMA: Summary of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)
- AMA's Fact Sheet
- What Stimulus Means to Texas Health Care
- Summary of the Health Provisions in the Economic Stimulus Package (Feb. 3, 2009)
- 2009 Federal Legislative Issue Briefs
- TMA's 111th U.S. Congress Main Page
Resources
TMA's Texas Medicare Manifesto II
For years, Congress has placed last-minute bandaids on the Medicare physician payment system. The latest patch expires at the end of 2009. TMA President Josie R. Williams, MD, outlines TMA's principles for Medicare payment reform.
"TMA and our patients call upon leaders on both sides of the aisle to stop stalling. It’s time to get to work and develop a bipartisan, long-term solution to the Medicare financing fiasco. ... It is very unlikely that Congress will begin to consider any legislation to fix Medicare until March 2009 or later. That leaves only nine months for Congress to fix a monumental problem it has neglected for more than a decade. And there’s another steep cliff looming ahead. If Congress once again does nothing, physicians are looking at a pay cut of 20 percent or more on Jan. 1, 2010. Soon the cost of the short-term fix will equal or exceed the cost of the long-term solution. ...
"We need a rational Medicare physician payment system that automatically keeps up with the cost of running a practice and is backed by a fair, stable funding formula."
- Fix the Formula Now
- Rebalance Funding Across All Parts of Medicare
- Put Patients Before Insurance Companies
- Here is what you can do, starting today.
Last Published: 10/2/2009 Print this page
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