As聽we get closer to 2014, consumers are being surrounded by news coverage, ads and opinions about the health law. And many of them are turning to聽their doctors for advice. The American Medical Association wants to help doctors聽with answers.
The website also aims to explain the law鈥檚 online marketplaces, or exchanges, which open for enrollment Oct. 1 with聽coverage beginning on聽Jan. 1.
The AMA guidance frequently links back to , the official federal government website for the health care law. But it also to members that the organization doesn鈥檛 agree with everything in the Affordable Care Act, or the ACA.
The group is pressing for elimination of the law鈥檚 , a 15-member advisory panel created聽to make recommendations to Congress on how to control Medicare expenditures if spending goes beyond a certain target. Republicans 鈥� and some Democrats 鈥� have , saying it would ration care and would eclipse congressional authority over Medicare. Backers聽have countered that the IPAB is needed to hold down Medicare spending and that Congress does have the authority to stop the聽panel鈥檚 recommendations from taking effect if it chooses.聽Regardless, in聽2011, the that Medicare spending is below聽the threshold that requires action.
Meanwhile, the AMA is pushing for Congress to act this year on something not included in the ACA: 聽a full repeal of , a Medicare payment formula that calls for a 25 percent cut in Medicare physician payments Jan. 1 unless Congress intervenes.