[StBernard] Doctors reaffirm insurance responsibility stance

[Westley Annis]

Doctors reaffirm insurance responsibility stance
June 21, 2011

(Reuters) Mon., June 20, 2011 CHICAGO - The American Medical Association on
Monday reaffirmed its position that individuals should be responsible for
buying health insurance, a contentious provision of U.S. health care reform.

The health reform law's requirement that everyone buy insurance is facing a
legal challenge by 26 states that contend the government cannot compel
citizens to engage in commerce.

At the AMA's annual meeting in Chicago, two-thirds of delegates voted to
uphold the group's policy supporting individual responsibility for
purchasing health insurance.

Key insurance market reforms, such as ending denials of coverage based on
pre-existing conditions, are only possible through broad participation in
the health insurance market, said AMA President Dr. Cecil Wilson.

"The AMA's policy supporting individual responsibility has bipartisan roots,
helps Americans get the care they need when they need it and ends cost
shifting from those who are uninsured to those who are insured," Wilson
said.

President Barack Obama in 2009 took his health care campaign to the annual
meeting of the influential AMA, which represents 250,000 doctors and has
historically been opposed to a bigger government role in health care.