Here’s a pleasant surprise: the AMA has decided to endorse healthcare reform. And not just any healthcare reform. Jon Cohn reports that they’ve endorsed the House Tri-Committee plan, one of the better proposals out there:
This is unexpected. Or, at least, I wasn’t expecting it. Recent signals from the AMA suggested they were reluctant to embrace reform, in no small part because they believed a public insurance option would underpay them. But the AMA letter contains no caveats. It is a straightforward endorsement.
And that makes it a pretty big deal. No, the AMA is not as powerful, nor as representative of the medical community, as it once was. But an unqualified endorsement for the most liberal plan out there has large symbolic value, given the role AMA played in killing health care reform for most of the 20th Century.
I’m not sure what all is going on behind the scenes (Jon thinks this might be a quid pro quo for higher Medicare reimbursements), but it’s good news. Max Baucus, please take note.
