The AMA and others in the arena have offered noble attempts at arguing for health reform.  But all plans seem to lack a method to address the fundamentals of access and cost.  While all are to be commended for trying, this site URGES the AMA and others to read and understand “The Plan”. It is the perhaps the only real way to retain a private health system with patient responsibility.  Government must referee the game, not play it. Despite obvious successes in some ways with Medicare, there are many flaws and we should look to the government to foster innovations that will achieve the desired results without the need for massive new or expanded entrenched federal bureaucracies. . . obi jo

In a  (10/21) blog entry, Marilyn Werber Serafini wrote, “With expensive healthcare reform proposals questionable for next year, some in Washington are giving a second, more serious look to ideas for changing the tax treatment of healthcare.” But, she asked, “is there a sensible way to change the tax treatment of healthcare that would be palatable to both Republicans and Democrats?” In response, AMA President Nancy H. Nielsen, President, wrote, “Reforming the tax treatment of healthcare would help advance the goal of achieving healthcare coverage for all Americans.” In an AMA questionnaire provided to “both campaigns, and available online at the AMA’s Voice for the Uninsured Campaign website ( ),” both campaigns “expressed support for tax credits.” Dr. Nielsen noted that the “AMA supports refundable, advanceable tax credits that are inversely related to income,” and supports “capping the employee tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance as an incremental way of generating revenue to offset the cost of the tax credits.” She concluded, “We must find a way to common ground, for the sake of the many Americans who live sicker and die younger, simply because they do not have health insurance.”

Read more on ideas on health reform @ http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2008/10/tax-changes-for-health-care.php

and on the AMA’s plan @ http://www.voicefortheuninsured.org/