AMA Sticks by Policy Requiring Individuals to Purchase a Minimum Level of Health Insurance

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The AMA's House of Delegates reaffirmed its support for policy that would require individuals to purchase a minimum level of catastrophic and preventive health insurance as part of overall health insurance reform aimed at achieving universal access to health care. The vote took place at the AMA's annual policymaking meeting this past week in Chicago.

More than 60 percent of the House’s 480-plus delegates voted in favor of the report reaffirming the policy, but the minority—comprised primarily of delegates from southeastern states and from surgical specialties—brought to the debate an intensity that mirrors that surrounding the provisions within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the health care reform law)requiring individuals to purchase insurance. Look for extensive coverage of the AMA's June meeting in upcoming issues of Psychiatric News.

For more information about the AMA policy on health care reform, see Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/45/24/4.2.full.