A dozen members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus fired off a letter to the American Medical Association on Friday, taking the organization to task for its endorsement of a House Democratic health care overhaul bill (HR 3200). “We fully believe that the AMA has lost touch with the vast majority of physicians in this country,” wrote the House members.

The Republicans said that important principles advocated for by the AMA in the past are missing from the bill, including changes in liability laws, Medicare payment system changes, and antitrust issues.

“Specifically, your letter states that the AMA is pleased with the choice of plans that will exist within a health insurance exchange,” the members wrote. “However, what you fail to mention is that the establishment of a government-run option in HR 3200 based on Medicare rates will create an unfair advantage that is not available to the private sector. This will effectively crowd out the private market leaving only a government–run option available to consumers. Instead, we should be putting in place the ability for patients to truly choose the coverage and physicians they want, as opposed to the government making those decisions for them.”

They added: “As the members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, we have spent our careers working for both the benefit of our chosen profession and for our patients. As we all try to work together to reach sensible and comprehensive health care reform, we would like to remind you that ‘reform’ in this case should not be synonymous with “government-run.”

The AMA issued its endorsement on Thursday, despite previous misgivings about the public plan option. The president of the AMA said in a letter to House committee leaders that the House bill “includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform.”

The medical doctors who signed the GOP letter were Republicans Phil Gingrey of Georgia, Charles W. Boustany of Louisiana, Michael C. Burgess of Texas, Tom Price of Georgia, Paul Broun of Georgia, Ron Paul of Texas, John Fleming of Louisiana, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Phil Roe of Tennessee. Dentist John Linder of Georgia, optometrist John Boozman of Arkansas and psychologist Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania also signed.


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