Over the weekend, Obama proposed more than $300 billion in cuts in spending on the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.
But the president told the AMA that the cuts would lead to better care and lower costs because they would reflect increased efficiencies in the system. And once the uninsured had coverage, he said, fewer patients would show up at emergency rooms, so hospitals would need less funding for such patients.
The talk of cuts came on top of Obama's increasingly vocal support for a yet-to-be-defined "public option" that would preserve patients' choice of doctors and work like private plans that cover federal employees.
On Monday, Obama did not retreat from those provocative proposals. But he was careful to express understanding of the challenges doctors face with malpractice lawsuits and the mind-numbing paperwork required of providers by insurance companies.
"I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards, which I personally believe can be unfair to people who've been wrongfully harmed," Obama said, adding that he wants to scale back "defensive medicine."
Obama said he would sit down with doctors to address liability reform, encouraging "evidence-based medicine" so physicians would not see the need to order unnecessary tests they say are only needed to prevent lawsuits.
After Obama's speech, several doctors were happy that the president said he would address liability reforms. "He wants to work with the AMA on the liability issue," said the AMA president-elect, Dr. James Rohack, a Texas cardiologist. "President Obama said he understands the costs of practicing defensive medicine."
Obama was booed once, when he told AMA members he would not change his stance on malpractice-award caps. But he was greeted with several standing ovations, particularly after stating his willingness to work with the AMA.
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