American Medical Association President James L. Madara, MD, penned a letter to Congress asking officials to reject the amended American Health Care Act, the Republican's healthcare bill.
Here are four notes:
1. The organization takes issue with the law potentially causing millions of Americans to lose their coverage, stating the bill's MacArthur Amendment does not address how the bill would combat this issue.
2. Dr. Madara writes the amendment fails to offer a "clear-long term framework" of its trajectory in "stabilizing and strengthening" the individual health insurance market that will make sure low and moderate incomes patients have access to affordable coverage.
3. The amendment states it will maintain the ACA's mandate on covering Americans with preexisting conditions. However, the AMA says this may be "illusory as health status underwriting could effectively make coverage completely unaffordable to people with preexisting conditions."
4. The amendment states its will require states to have some form of reinsurance or high-risk pool mechanisms in place. However, Dr. Madara writes there is no guarantee this will go far enough to ensure Americans have affordable insurance. It also does not guarantee payers will not discriminate against patients with high-cost conditions.