Major doctors group votes to oppose single-payer health care

The nation’s largest doctors group on Tuesday voted against a measure that would have dropped its decades-long opposition to single-payer health care proposals.

The American Medical Association’s (AMA) House of Delegates voted 53 percent to 47 percent against the measure, but adopted a slate of proposals to shore up the Affordable Care Act.

{mosads}The AMA is part of a coalition of insurers, drug companies and hospital groups aggressively lobbying against “Medicare for All” proposals in Congress.

But Tuesday’s vote shows that AMA’s members are not united in the group’s overall opposition to single-payer.

The effort to drop the decades-old opposition was largely led by medical students, according to Modern Healthcare.

Protesters demonstrated outside the group’s annual meeting in Chicago over the weekend, demanding the AMA drop its opposition to single-payer.

Instead, the AMA said it supports building on the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“Since the ACA was enacted into law in 2010, millions of Americans have gained health insurance. The policy question now is how to improve the law to insure even more,” said AMA President Dr. Barbara McAneny.

“We need policies to make coverage more affordable for millions of Americans – both in the premiums they pay, as well as their cost-sharing responsibilities.”

Several Democratic presidential candidates have backed the Medicare for all proposal sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is also running for president. 

But frontrunner Joe Biden has instead pushed for a public option that would compete with private insurance.