AMA meeting: AMA launches pre-election push on plight of uninsured

Action on SCHIP is to be followed by the release of a national health policy agenda and an advertising campaign on the insurance access problem.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. July 16, 2007.

Chicago -- The American Medical Association House of Delegates last month voted in favor of strengthening children's health care and began formulating a broad health care agenda in advance of an election year expected to focus heavily on the uninsured.

At their Annual Meeting, delegates approved an AMA policy calling for the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program before it expires at the end of September. They also called for a commitment from Congress of $60 billion over five years in SCHIP funding. This amount would allow the program to maintain its current level of coverage and enroll the remainder of children who are eligible but not insured.

Delegates were unanimous in their support for reauthorizing SCHIP, but some argued against placing a specific price tag on the effort. Although $60 billion is considered by many experts to be the amount needed to cover all eligible kids, some physicians warned the AMA against locking itself into a specific figure when funding projections could change.

But the AMA board felt strongly that this figure was the amount required to ensure health coverage for every eligible child, Dr. Rosman said. President Bush and some lawmakers are calling for a much smaller SCHIP appropriation. After negotiations in Washington, this means the final amount could fall in the middle.

Delegates also considered other resolutions on the issue of the uninsured and underinsured. They adopted principles to guide the evaluation of health insurance coverage adequacy. For example, to pass AMA muster, insurance pools designed to enable access to coverage must offer several age-appropriate options, follow the same guidelines as those of federal health employee plans, and assist lower-income and sicker patients with high costs.