US state and national medical societies join forces to oppose Senator Reid's Health Reform Bill

Thousands of physicians in America, who are deeply concerned over the direction of health reform legislation, have joined forces to deliver a strong message to Congress: 'it's not too late to get it right; slow down and change course.' These 17 state and national medical societies, including the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons, represent more than 92,000 physicians from coast to coast, and are unified in their opposition of the 'Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act' (HR 3590) as introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat, Nevada).

The groups, along with three past presidents of the American Medical Association, this week sent an urgent letter to the US Senate specifying their numerous concerns with Senator Reid's bill, which is now being debated.
The groups point to a number of problems with HR 3590, including:

' The bill undermines the patient-physician relationship and empowers the federal government with even greater authority.
' The bill is unsustainable from a financial standpoint.
' The government run community health insurance option eventually will lead to a single-payer, government run health care system.
' Largely unchecked by Congress or the courts, the federal government would have unprecedented authority to change the Medicare program through the new Independent Medicare Advisory Board and the new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
' The bill is devoid of real medical liability reform measures that reduce costs in proven demonstrable ways.
' The right of patient and physicians to privately contract for health services is not guaranteed in the bill.

Broad agreement reached by Senate Democrats on public option

Meantime, news outlets are reporting that Senator Reid announced that a group of Democratic Senators has reached consensus around the public option, though he did not give details, according to a synopsis of the situation in Kaiser Health News' Daily Report. Among these:

The Associated Press: "After days of secret talks, Senate Democrats tentatively agreed Tuesday night to drop a government-run insurance option from sweeping health care legislation, several officials said, a concession to party moderates whose votes are critical to passage of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. In place of a government-run plan, originally designed as a way of forcing competition on private industry, officials said the Democrats had tentatively settled on a private insurance arrangement to be supervised by the federal agency that oversees the system through which lawmakers purchase coverage. Additionally, the tentative deal calls for Medicare to be opened to uninsured Americans beginning at age 55, a significant expansion of the large government health care program that currently serves the 65-and-over population

But CongressDaily is reporting that Sen Reid "said the public option was not abandoned. 'Tonight we've overcome a real problem that we had,' he said, adding that reports that the public option was off the table were 'not true.' Members would not share what was in the package, but indicated its contents had changed from earlier discussions surrounding a Medicare buy-in for those between 55 and 64 years old, giving the federal government the power to negotiate with insurers on behalf of a national plan and expanding Medicaid.

Politico wrote that the "major step" towards compromise came when Democrats agreed "to ask congressional scorekeepers to give them cost estimates.'Not everyone will agree to every piece we sent over there,' Sen Reid said, 'but believe me that we've got something that's good...it moves this bill way down the road.'

CNN said: "[Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] and the two senators who negotiated the agreement - Charles Schumer and Mark Pryor - would not reveal any details of the plan. 'It goes without saying it's been kind of a long journey,'' Sen Reid said. 'We've overcome a real problem that we had. I think it's fair to say the debate at this stage has been portrayed as a very divisive one.' 'All of the pieces have to fit together before anyone agrees on anything, but in that area we have pretty good consensus,' said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who is leading the all-Democrat talks.

Meanwhile, Senators continue negotiations over the other hot topic in health reform

The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones reports that Senate Democrats 'finalized major new provisions to the bill that would expand the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A number of Democrats cited Tuesday as a critical day for the bill, as they seek to send legislation to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office in time to receive a cost estimate and schedule a final vote before Christmas."

A group of 10 moderates and liberals assembled by Senator Reid hoped to wrap up a compromise on some of the bill's key provisions by the end of the day. "The group, which met Tuesday morning, is considering changes to the bill that would scale down its version of a public health insurance plan, allow those 55 and older to buy into the Medicare program and expand eligibility for the low-income Medicaid program. But it's unclear if some key senators will be willing to support the compromise."