by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright Nov. 5, 2009
All Rights Reserved.

              Winning endorsements from the American Medical Association and American Association of Retired People, President Barack Obama expressed gratitude for supporting his health reform legislation.  “I am extraordinarily pleased and grateful to learn that AARP and the American Medical Association are both supporting the health insurance reform bill that will some come to a vote in the House of Representatives,” said Obama in the House Briefing Room.  Given AARP’s 40-million members receiving the endorsement of its diverse membership, it’s becoming more difficult for Republicans to ignore the real motive behind opposition:  Defeating, as U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) admitted July 19, Obama’s bid for second term in office. GOP support for defeating Barack’s health care plan reflects a carefully orchestrated Republican National Committee plan.

            DeMint’s admission that the GOP must defeat Obama on health care to have of prayer of winning back House and Senate seats in next year’s midterm elections, represents a cynical manipulation of GOP constituents   GOP talking points insist that Obama’s national health reform plan would destroy the American health care system.  Yet today’s backing by the AMA indicates that most physicians support a plan that extends coverage to the nation’s 37- million uninsured and prevents insurance companies from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions.  AARP’s 40-million members run across the political spectrum, dividng equally among Democrats, Republicans and Independents.  With only Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) supporting Barack’s health reform plan, there’s no excuse other than pure politics for the GOP to shun the legislation.

            Calling AARP “no small endorsement,” Obama recognized the historic nature to the senior group’s approval.  House Democrats need 218 signers to pass the most historic health care legislation since Medicare in 1964.  Despite carefully organized GOP opposition, AMA and AARP membership enjoys substantial Republican participation.  There’s a bizarre disconnect between Republican support inside both institutions and the U.S. House and Senate.  GOP leadership on Capitol Hill completely ignores growing numbers of Republicans that support the reform bill.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) expects the House to muster the 218 votes need for passage on Saturday, Nov. 7.  “I wouldn’t refer to it as a squeaker, but I think it’s going to be close,” said Hoyer, dumbfounded by the nearly unanimous Republican opposition, despite AMA and AARP endorsements.

             Republican opposition stems from losses in last year’s presidential election, where the GOP surrendered control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.  Picking up 30 seats in the House and five in the Senate, Democrats now have the supermajority to avoid a Republican filibuster.  Adding two House seats Tuesday in Upstate New York and Northern California, Democrats look poised to pass Barack’s health care reform.  Getting backing of AARP and the AMA blows the cover of GOP propagandists touting the legislation as a socialist takeover of U.S. health care.  “The bill does improve quality and, and it improves access,” said AARP Senior Policy Advisor John Rother.  AMA President Dr. James Rohack acknowledged the bill isn’t perfect but meets the minimum requirements of the broad interests of organized medicine, including its over 260,000 members.

            Calling on opponents to “waterboard Congress,” Conservatives marched on Capitol Hill chanting “kill the bill.”  Insurance industry lobbyists opposes the bill because it cuts into their bottom line, protected by an anti-trust exemption, allowing insurance companies to exclude various conditions, set deductibles, co-pays and other exclusions that limits industry exposure.  Conservatives want assurances that no federally funded program would pay for abortions.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Hoyer have been working closely with Rep. Bard Ellsworth (D-Ind.) to write language in the final bill that bans abortions and other controversial medical procedures.  Ellsworth believes he can potentially win over GOP voters by assuring Obama’s plan won’t cover abortions or other controversial medical procedures, e.g., in vitro fertilization or coverage for undocumented workers.

            Endorsements from AARP and the AMA have helped drive home to average voters that there’s more than partisan politics at stake.  If you listen to the GOP, you’d conclude that Obama’s plan would destroy American medicine as we know it.  Those without insurance know that health care has been priced out of the market for average Americans.  No other industrialized democracy in Europe or the Western hemisphere fails to provide national health care to its citizens.  With AMA and AARP’s endorsements, it’s harder for conservatives to argue health reform wrecks the American system.  Reassuring House and Senate members about provisions for illegal aliens and abortion, softens the same opposition faced by the Clintons in 1992.  More opposition from the GOP only exposes a cynical political agenda designed to win elections not improve the nation’s health care.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.