Mississippi doctors like some aspects of President Barack Obama’s proposed health care reforms, but are 100 percent opposed to the “public option,” Vicksburg physician Randy Easterling, president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, told Vicksburg Rotary Club members Thursday.

“Until Obama got to the public option he was going almost lock-step with the AMA,” Easterling said, speaking of the national medical group. Favored parts of the health-reform bill include insurance portability in the event a person relocates, and coverage of pre-existing conditions.

The term public option refers to coverage under policies written and administered by the federal government and would be available as an alternative to policies purchased on the private market. The president’s plan to provide a public insurance option is acceptable as it starts out, he said, but what it will evolve into over a few years concerns physicians. The “insurance vehicle of last resort” for those who can’t afford health insurance is supposed to become self-supporting some years after being funded with federal seed money. “But how can it survive economically if it’s for people who can’t afford to buy insurance?” Easterling said.

Doctors also believe the Obama plan will have a negative impact on Medicare and Medicaid, but doing nothing will be worse, Easterling said. Medicare payments to doctors have not been increased in 12 years and they are slated to be reduced by 21.5 percent. Doctors looking at a big cut in pay might not be willing to see Medicare patients, he said.

Most doctors do favor health care reform, he said, just as most Americans think that medical care is too expensive and what it buys is not good enough.

Still, “I think there’s a 30 to 40 percent chance that the wheels are coming off entirely and we’ll end up with nothing,” Easterling said.

“It’s an exciting time, a controversial time,” he said. “We need health care reform but, in my opinion, to the free-market system we have and not with government intrusion.”

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com