Examples of areas where the AMA will likely refocus itsefforts include increased subsidies for Obamacare enrollees andother policies to stabilize the ACA marketplace. (Photo:Getty)

The American Medical Association, the formidable physicianslobby, announced on Thursday that it would no longerparticipate in a Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, agroup mounting a campaign against Medicare for All and otherDemocratic proposals to expand government involvement in healthcare.

The AMA continues to oppose Medicare for All, group presidentJames Madara said in a statement. However, he said the group wantedto focus on bolstering solutions it supports, rather than attackingthose it opposes.

Related: AMA narrowly divided in opposition to Medicare forAll

“Practical solutions have been identified and continue to bechampioned by the AMA,” Madara said. “The AMA decided to leave thePartnership for America’s Health Care Future so that we can devotemore time to advocating for these policies that will addresscurrent coverage gaps and dysfunction in our health caresystem.”

Examples of solutions will likely include increased subsidiesfor Obamacare enrollees and other policies to stabilize the ACAmarketplace, which President Trump and Congressional Republicanshave sought to undermine.

The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future isa coalition of health care industry interests opposed tosingle-payer health care, including pharmaceutical companies,hospitals and insurers. The participation of the AMA provided apowerful endorsement from one of the few groups in the health caresector that does not garner widespread suspicion.

There are strong indications that America’s physicians are asdivided on health care policy as the broader public. In June theAMA House of Delegates, the organization’s policy-making body, onlynarrowly voted to continue its longstanding opposition tosingle-payer health care: 53 to 47 percent.

If doctors are warming to the idea of single-payer ––or at least a public option –– it would not be the first time theyhave evolved. The AMA mounted a fierce campaign against theestablishment of Medicare in the early 1960’s, enlisting thesupport of then-actor Ronald Reagan to record messages inopposition to “socialized medicine.” The AMA has since become areliable defender of Medicare.

Read more: 

• Why single-payer may be closer than you think (andwhat to do about it)
• CMS won’t “waste time” on single-payer, Vermasays
• CBO: Medicare for All a ‘majorundertaking’

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