Obama talks to the AMA

The American Medical Association is the most powerful medical association in the United States, aside from individual corporate entities, so Obama is smart to involve them in discussions on healthcare reform.

"To say it as plainly as I can, health care reform is the single most important thing we can do for America's long-term fiscal health. That is a fact," Obama said.

"In order to do that we are going to need the help of the AMA."

Obama should also involve nurses and all Primary Care Practitioners, such as chiropractors and acupuncturists.

Many people in the healthcare industry want reform. They are tired of watching patients not receive the help they need due to decisions made by insurance companies. Of course, this includes doctors, too. If a single payer system allowed doctors to maintain their level of income and provide better treatment decisions, they would be fully on-board.

However, doctor's are very wary of greater government involvement in healthcare. This is primarily due to the fact that Medicare is an absolute mess of a system that is plagued by fraud and never properly reimburses practitioners. So, the idea of extending Medicare to provide universal coverage is a faulted strategy.

That said, reform is required immediately. Healthcare costs have been out of control for years, primarily due to corporate orchestrations that patients aren't aware of and that doctors typically lack the time and resources to protest. In short, its a complicated, flawed system.

Yet other countries do healthcare better. As a leading civilized nation, it is inexcusable that we don't provide better care to our own people. The main reason other countries provide better health services is because they keep the health and well-being of their people as the foremost objective in legislating. The U.S. puts business interests first.

We are not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children.  We are not a nation that lets hardworking families go without coverage, or turns its back on those in need.  We're a nation that cares for its citizens.  We look out for one another.  That's what makes us the United States of America.  We need to get this done.

There are two main reasons for this.  The first is a system of incentives where the more tests and services are provided, the more money we pay.  And a lot of people in this room know what I'm talking about.  It's a model that rewards the quantity of care rather than the quality of care; that pushes you, the doctor, to see more and more patients even if you can't spend much time with each, and gives you every incentive to order that extra MRI or EKG, even if it's not necessary.  It's a model that has taken the pursuit of medicine from a profession -- a calling -- to a business.

That's not why you became doctors.  That's not why you put in all those hours in the Anatomy Suite or the O.R.  That's not what brings you back to a patient's bedside to check in, or makes you call a loved one of a patient to say it will be fine.  You didn't enter this profession to be bean-counters and paper-pushers.  You entered this profession to be healers.  And that's what our health care system should let you be.  That's what this health care system should let you be.

Now, that starts with reforming the way we compensate our providers -- doctors and hospitals. We need to bundle payments so you aren't paid for every single treatment you offer a patient with a chronic condition like diabetes, but instead paid well for how you treat the overall disease. We need to create incentives for physicians to team up, because we know that when that happens, it results in a healthier patient. We need to give doctors bonuses for good health outcomes, so we're not promoting just more treatment, but better care.