Colorado Public News asked two leading physicians in Colorado on opposite sides of the political fence whether fears of the federal government interfering with treatment of their patients were justified. The answers were enlightening, and very different. Dr. William G. Plested, president of the American Medical Association from 2006 to 2007, retired as a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon in Santa Monica, Calif., to Bayfield. He is a severe critic of the health-care law. In stark contrast is Dr. John Bender, president-elect of the Colorado Medical Society and a family medicine doctor with Miramont Family Medicine in Fort Collins. He does not see anything in the health law that would cause "interference in the daily practice of medicine."