President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act. (White House photo)
A majority of the American Medical Association's House of Delegates has
voted 326-165 to support the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, though the association is unlikely to file briefs defending the mandate in court.
AMA President Cecil Wilson said the "overwhelming" vote shows that doctors still believe a mandate is necessary to achieving universal coverage.
He emphasized that the AMA — the country's largest trade association for doctors — backed the individual mandate before the debate over healthcare reform. Many members of the traditionally conservative group wanted to see that position reassessed at the AMA's annual meeting this week in Chicago.
Delegates at the meeting voted down a proposal to let each state decide its own position on the mandate. Wilson said that position wouldn't be consistent with the AMA's stance is a necessary part of expanding coverage.
It's a necessary part of extending coverage in the absence of universal coverage option like Medicare for all. It's not surprising that the AMA supports the mandate—while they are committed to extending coverage, it conveniently provides them with patients who can reliably pay. Just like the insurance companies support the mandate—they have a captive customer base and promises of much more revenue.
Former insurance industry executive Wendell Potter discussed this in the panel organized by Eve Gittelson at Netroots Nation last week, Healthcare Reform 2.0. Should the mandate survive the courts, as seems likely, what we need to worry about is the mandate being the only element of the Affordable Care Act surviving a potential Republican Congress and president. The powers pulling the strings—particularly the insurance industry, who lobbied from the very beginning for the mandate and agreed to regulation on pre-existing conditions and the rest in return for it—would fight to keep the mandate while repealing all of the consumer protections the ACA provides. It's a reasonable fear.