Who Supports What? A Healthcare Stakeholder Scorecard

The American Hospital Association favors health reform, and national health insurance for people who don't get it through their employer or qualify for other programs. But the organization has "serious concerns…about establishing a new public plan that could exacerbate the underpayment of providers by paying rates at Medicare or Medicaid levels."

The AHA points to a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission projection that hospitals will have a negative 6.9% Medicare margin in 2009, down from a positive 6.2% Medicare margin in 1999 "the lowest level in more than a decade."

Nationally, treating Medicaid patients resulted in a $10.4 billion shortfall in 2007.

The American Medical Association last week reversed its position opposing a public option, saying that it supports H.R. 3200 and urges its passage. "This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform," said AMA president James Rohack, MD.

Though groups have begun taking sides, more details are expected for each of the plans and the Senate Finance Committee plans to release its bipartisan bill in the next two weeks. That should change the healthcare reform landscape even more.