MINNEAPOLIS, March 19, 2010 - The AMA announced its qualified support Friday for passage of health system reform legislation under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives, according to an AMA bulletin.

 Passage would be another step forward in the journey to provide health care coverage for all Americans, the AMA said.

By extending coverage to the vast majority of the uninsured, improving competition and choice in the insurance marketplace, promoting prevention and wellness, reducing administrative burdens, and promoting clinical comparative effectiveness research, the AMA believes that H.R. 3590 does, in fact, improve the ability of patients and their physicians to achieve better health outcomes.

However, the AMA also said that the pending bill was an imperfect product and called for House and Senate leaders to correct problems with:

• Access to care for seniors and military families by permanently repealing the Medicare sustainable growth rate formula that will trigger physician payment cuts of more than 21 percent next month,
• The proposed Independent Payment Advisory Board,
• The cost-quality value index,
• Safeguards for data release and public reporting activities, and  
• Unnecessary costs through enactment of effective medical liability reforms

The House is expected to vote on the health system reform bill on Sunday, March 21.