Leaders of 10 doctors' organizations appeared on stage with President Clinton on Thursday to express support for his health-care plan and underline their differences with the American Medical Association, which has objected to many elements of it.
Obstetricians, pediatricians, family doctors, internists, specialists in preventive medicine and spokesmen for groups representing black doctors and Hispanic doctors said they endorsed Clinton's plan, including one of its most hotly debated features: a requirement that employers buy health insurance for their workers.The event, at the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House, was organized by Clinton aides to inject new life into the campaign for congressional passage of the bill, the most ambitious piece of social legislation proposed by any president in half a century.
Republicans and conservative Democrats have been pecking away at the Clinton plan, endorsing the president's goal of universal health insurance coverage while complaining that his proposal relies far too much on a complex, untested federal regulatory apparatus.
Last week the American Medical Association urged Congress to consider alternatives to Clinton's proposed employer mandate, the requirement that all employers buy health insurance for their employees.
Clinton said Thursday that the 10 doctors' groups supporting his plan represented more than 300,000 physicians, slightly more than the 296,600 members that the AMA claims as of November.
Surrounded by doctors, Clinton said, "The presence of these physicians here debunks the notion that the plan we have presented is some sort of big-government bureaucratic plan that erodes the doctor-patient relationship."