Today is a big day in health care, as the Senate Finance Committee starts marking up Sen. Max Baucus’s health care proposal.

Here’s what the American Medical Association thinks about the proposal. It’s not surprising to see AMA trying to protect physician incomes, of course. But its list of concerns suggest that the association is unwilling to support some of the basic tenets of health care  payment reform.

For example:

  • AMA opposes mandatory participation in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Physician Quality Reporting Initiative. While PQRI is flawed in execution to date, quality reporting and accountability are essential to payment reform.
  • AMA opposes payment reductions for physicians identified as high-resource users. Efficiency is not important in the country with the world’s highest health costs??
  • AMA opposes budget neutral financing for primary care bonus payments.  How will primary care pay be raised in relation to other specialties if all specialties make more money?